SEEDs of Transformation
by Arthur Hansen
Summary: Hot Shot thought he had a headache with just Decepticons. Humans and their wars can be such a pain. Co-written with Fanboyimusprime. Now not specifically Transformers Animated.
1. Arrival

A massive ship exited hyperspace with a flash of light that illuminated the dark side of Jupiter. Its four engines blared with power, sending the dull, yellow ship in a curve around the huge planet. The massive sensor array activated as they came out of the planet's shadow, showing a blue-white ball with a large moon and a ring of debris.

"So that's Earth?" Hot Shot asked.

"Yes," Perceptor said flatly. "Due to it's proximity to a star and active geothermal processes we can gain stockpiles of energy and build a safe house in a remote region of the planet."

"I am not sure this is the best place for us to go," Whirl said with vigor. "The locals seem to have simmering issues on genetics. A bunch of hate mongers waiting for the right moment to set off a war."

"We don't have much of a choice." Perceptor commented then, "The energy reserves on the _Steel Haven_ won't take us much farther than this solar system."

"Genetics? What is that?" Swerve asked.

"Genes are the building materials of organic beings," Perceptor explained in his monotoned way. "However some genes lead to problems for humans. The faction that alters their genetic code has resulted in improvements in memory, strength and other attributes. However humility and understanding are not enhanced by these changes."

"So basically most of them act like glitchheads to those that aren't enhanced," Whirl said in scorn. "And the unenhanced really don't like that and most are jealous of the improvements the enhanced called Coordinators have."

"I thought you had to learn humility?" Swerve commented. "Given Hot Shot sure wasn't programed with it."

Hot Shot gave Swerve a heated glare as he didn't find that funny.

"Can you two stop acting like proties and get back on topic?" Downshift said from the corner of the room. Downshift rarely spoke at meetings unless he had something important to say.

"Yes," Perceptor said. "What we must do is pick a neutral colony and pick up supplies. Afterwards we can set up our safe house on Sol III."

"Or we could trade with the Junk Guild," Whirl noted in a thinking tone. "They are the human versions of the Junkions. Which I expect to see come here in a Vorn."

"If we can find them," Downshift said grumpily. "Best to head to Heliopolis, trade with them or some other group."

Perceptor pondered if Heliopolis would be the best location and it fit all the critera that he had. Within the limited information gleaned, it seemed to.

The Autobots planned how they were going to disguise the ship. It was small by Transformers standards but my human standards it was huge. The shuttles were considered as they were smaller and might be more easily explained with some holographic tricks. The faking of them being a trading ship was the easy part.

Swerve just hoped human trading was similar to that of Cybertronians given he was a merchant before the War broke out.

In the front the pilot of the _Steel Haven_ was lost in his own thoughts. Drift had once been a Decepticon but he had seen the light and had changed. Though he worried if they found out someone like Cliffjumper or Grimlock would kill him for his past deeds he was trying to atone for. And he was considered a 'high value' target by the Decepticons.

The Autobots loaded themselves in to the shuttle. At a mere 150 meters long, it would roughly match some of the civilian model ships here.

"This is Heliopolis control to unknown ship, please state your intention," a human said a short range radio.

"We're just an unaffiliated ship that is desperately low on energy. We'd be willing to trade some computer components for a chance to recharge," Drift said on the audio-only link.

"That's one of those old designs that used to use a fission pile, eh? Guess those didn't convert well to the battery system. Well, we can at least dock you so you can talk to the Port Master," the human said.

Drift gave everyone a thumbs up in the crowded cockpit of the shuttle.

Perceptor nodded. "We should move to the cargo area and ready the trade articles."

Everyone but Drift nodded, moving down to the cargo/crew area. As they had been unsure of what would be useful, they had brought almost a twenty-five tons. Roughly the mass of about four Autobots.

"Oh, slag," Drift called out, just as huge robots came out of nowhere and started firing primative weaponry at the hidden Autobot ship and the cargo ship behind them.

All of the Autobots in the cargo area stumbled a the _ZGMF-1017 GINN_ blasted into the side of it with its cannon.

"Drift, report," Perceptor called out.

"The colony appears to be under attack from the guys that have Guardians," the ex-Decepticon called out. "Oh, that's why. The cargo ship we were ahead of just launched those stupid fighters that the other side uses."

Mu La Flaga swore as he readied his Moebius Zero mobile armor. "This is the worst time and place for a battle."

Drift ignored the orders of the human, trying to figure out a way out of this, but it appeared the GINNs were doing their job, shredding his control thrusters. "Guys, we're in trouble here. The shuttle is taking a pounding."

"Open the cargo hatch. We'll shoot them out of the sky," Hot Shot shouted out.

"Sound reasoning." Perceptor opened the cargo hatch.

A GINN that had been strafing the shuttle stopped, prepared to deal with any launched mobile armors. So it was surprised when it saw midget mobilesuits that started firing upong him. But he was part of Rau La Creuset's team for a reason, dodging with an almost life-like agility.

"Damn, for a stupid over-sized Guardian, those things can move. Makes me regret that I'm supposed to normally deal in ground battles," Hot Shot called out.

Whirl, Swerve and Downshift ignored his banter to keep firing their blasters.

Aboard the Earth Federation cargo ship, the captain yelled to his pilot, "Turn! Turn!"

"We've lost control," came the response. "We're going to crash into that ship ahead of us."

Drift saw it heading their way, but thought he could get the shuttle moving. Finally, at the last possible second, he called out, "Abandon ship! Abandon ship!"

Perceptor had the right angle to see outside and the onrushing cargo ship. Taking the immediate, logical step he flew out of the cargo hatch at best speed as possible.

"Slag. If Perceptor is leaving, it must be bad," Hot Shot yelled out. With a mighty leap, he and the other Autobots got out of the shuttle. Whirl transformed into a cybertronian jet and started flying like a maniac. Whirl poured on the afterburners and strafed the GINN with his blasters.

The explosion from the two ships hitting each other was massive, but paled in comparison to when their wreckage slammed into the armored wall of the O'Neil-type colony.

"We are at an extreme disadvantage in this environment. Recommend that we retreat into the primitive colony," the mono-tone voice of Perceptor informed everyone even as he fired his blaster at the nearest GINN.

Back on the Versalius, Rau Le Cruscet was receiving word of strange, small mobilesuits. He wondered who had created them and why. They would be fairly ineffective with any reasonable weapons. "I am going to sortee out and deal with some annoyances."

* * *

The Autobots were tromping around in huge, metal corridors that reminded them of their far off home, Cybertron.

"We really need to lay low for a bit and figure out what is going on," Hot Shot said as he looked around a corner.

"It would be logical to use our alternate forms once we disable local security cameras," Perceptor said. "Initiating computer link. Crashing primitive computer system."

Whirl almost sighed in frustration, but did as ordered. They had prepared ahead of time using the computers of _Steel Haven_. His alternate form was a form of VTOL used by this government. Swerve and Downshift both had rather bland groundcars, while Hot Shot was some form of sports car. Perceptor, as normal, was a military command vehicle.

The convoy of four vehicle with him flying overhead were able to enter into the main part of the colony. They took a ramp that curved to the 'floor' of the colony.

"Impressive large-scale primitive engineering. Suggestion; disperse into the local fauna and scout the area," Perceptor called out.

"Hey, are those Decepticons over there?" Whirl called out, looking at three large robots that were starting to stand up.

Each huge, gray robot seemed free of any markings of any sort though. And they just clumsily stood up and then rocketed up into the air, then headed towards the center-line of the colony, then towards the open end that the Autobots had used as their entrance.

"Huh. For guardians, they look really life-like," Hot Shot said. "That's really weird. And they look dangerous."

"I spotted some more guardians," Swerve called out. He had switched back to his robot form and was pointing at a GINN that was attacking a group of four linear tanks.

The GINN's autocannon was tearing them apart. Explosions were ripping through the manufacturing zone.

"Great. Just our luck to get stuck in the middle of a full fledged war. I thought you said they were in the middle of a ceasefire?" Downshift complained to Preceptor.

"Local information networks gave that information as accurate. Apparent that this is a local flare up. We should be able to talk rationally to local authorities shortly," Perceptor said in his mono-tone way.

"Wow, that guardian looks like it over did it on the energon," Hot Shot said.

A GINN was knocking around a colorful red, white and blue angular mobilesuit that was staggering around like it was drunk.

Hot Shot was looking upset at the treatment. That guardian that was getting beat up did not even have any weapons. "Okay, that's it!" He transformed into the fancy, flame-painted sportscar and roared across the compound.

Miguel was getting very, very upset. This G-Weapon was being bothersome for a half-completed piece of junk. He was just raising his GINN's heavy broadsword up in preperation of a charge when a sportscar screeched in between the two mobilesuits and charged. With a casual manipulation of controls, he moved to step on the gutsy driver.

So when the car turned into a smaller robot, he was quite surprised. He was even more surprised when it pulled a toy-like rifle and blew his GINN's arm off at the elbow with some sort of energy burst.

"Yeah! Take that you reject Decepticon wannabe!" Hot Shot shouted angrily.

Kira Yamato and Lt. Murrue Ramius were staring in shock at the pint-sized robot that was trash-talking the GINN. The young coordinator kept typing up a storm, correcting the operating system. "What is that thing?"

"It's not one of ours," the Earth Federation officer admitted. "So I don't know."

Miguel snarled inside his battered GINN. "I'm retreating," he told his information control system. The GINN backed up and then jetted away.

"We are safe?" Kira said with a sigh of relief.

"Yeah. That was amazing." Murrue gave the young kid a smile before the stress of combat and her wound caused her to sway, then collapse

Hot Shot was watching the angular guardian to see if it was going to attack when it suddenly kneeled and then opened a hatch int its belly. "Uh, hello?" he asked the small creatures that was standing on a short panel that was sticking out.

"This lady passed out. I think she's hurt," Kira called out. "Can you help?"

"Sure! Out of the way, little guy," Hot Shot said with a grin on his robot face. "I'll get her down."

Kira stepped out of the way and over to the leg. So he was surprised when the robot reached in and gently snagged the woman and laid her out.

"I think she's leaking lubricant. That's not too dangerous," Hot Shot said.

"Hot Shot, biological units do not leak lubricant. That is likely blood, which is a circulatory system necessary for its life," Preceptor said in his way, almost showing some emotion.

"Uh, I don't know how to fix that," the brash Autobot said, looking worried.

"There's an emergency first aid kit." Kira came back out of the Strike G-Weapon with a small case. With a display of inhuman athleticism, he was over and starting to to bandage her out. "Why aren't you getting out of those mobilesuits?" he asked in frustration. He really wanted an adult to handle this situation.

"Um, kid?" Hot Shot _thought_ that he was smaller, so younger than the other human. "We aren't inside these bodies. They are, well, our _bodies._ We can't get out of them."

"Artificial Intelligences? Wow, that is so cool," the young engineer said as he finished up taping over the bullet wound.

"Um, all natural here. Just naturally a robot," Hot Shot said.

"Affirmative. Autobots are robotic life forms," Perceptor said as he tromped up.

Whirl flew over and transformed, followed by Swerve and Downshift drove and then transformed.

Kira was just staring in shock. "You... transformed?"

"Yup, that's what other people call us; Transformers. We're the faction called Autobots, seeking to free our world Cybertron from the evil dictators known as the Decepticons," Hot Shot said as he gave Kira a thumb's up and smile.

Downshift sighed. "And we did not mean to get involved in your war-"

"It's not my war. Orb is neutral. Even if we did help develop these machines for the Earth Federation," Kira almost shouted. That was when his friends ran over.

They were incredibly excited and really not that coherent.

"Quiet," Lt. Ramius called out. "I said shut up!" That was almost shouted at the kids. "Hey, you can get out of your mobilesuits!" She waved her good arm at the Autobots.

"There aren't people in there. They are the mobilesuits. Some sort of living robots," Kira explained. "Say, does that mean you aren't from our solar system?"

"That is correct. These Transformers were in transit when depleting energy resources mandated that we stop in this solar system," Perceptor said clearly and concisely. "We are now stranded here on this colony as our shuttle was destroyed by ZAFT forces."

"Yeah, really uncool," Hot Shot said in anger.

Murrue was thinking furiously. "Welcome to our Solar System on behalf of the Earth Federation. I appreciate your assistance in saving my live and this student," she said formally. "While it would be presumptuous to ask for help in our fight, could I get some help in keeping this unit from being stolen?"

"Hot Shot has already helped you in that regard. Perceptor has no problems with assisting in this as long as we get a look at primitive guardian device," the Autobot scientist said.

Murrue flushed, then started laughing. "I guess it probably is a bit primitive for living robots that have Faster Than Light technology. Um, could you help me up to its cockpit so I can radio the base?"

Perceptor picked her up with surprising care, holding her up so she could radio. When that did not work, she got a lift to the ground and gave the kids a speculative look. "Look, kids? I'm not able to do some things and I have to protect this mobilesuit. I need your help in loading a striker pack so the G-Weapon isn't defenseless. All I need is you to drive some trucks and install the backpack."

Kira and his three friends looked at each other in consternation.

"We can help to," Swerve said. "I want to take a look at this unit, too. This striker pack sounds interesting."

* * *

Authors' Notes: This is actually a collaboration between myself and Fanboyimusprime.


	2. Meeting

Murrue tried to stand the G-Weapon up again. "Why won't it stand? I got it to move earlier," she complained. The controls seemed incredibly responsive... and impossibly hard to use. Finally, after another minute, she gave up and opened the hatch. "What did you do?" She was looking down at the brown-haired kid with purple eyes.

"Um, well I had to rewrite it. That system was useless," Kira said while wincing. He might have overdone it with some of his optimizations.

"Well, I need you to get in here and move it somewhere more defenseable then," she grumbled.

Hot Shot had been watching the proceedings with interest. These humans were very interesting. "Let me help you down," he offered. He set Murrue down on the ground while Kira clambered into the mobilesuit.

And it was good timing as an explosion heralded the arrival of a CGUE and the battered remains of a Moebius Zero mobilearmor.

"Whirl!" Hot Shot shouted.

"I guess we picked a side of this battle," Whirl said as he transformed to a large, blue VTOL and roared up into the air.

Rau Le Creuset grumbled as he had to dodge the energy weapons mounted on the Orb VTOL. "So they were testing energy weapons on this platform, hmm? Well, the should have picked a better combat platform. I'll get to you in a moment, Mu La Flaga!" The CGUE suddenly zoomed towards Whirl. "Die!"

"Slag! This guy's good!" the Autobot yelled, transforming into his robot mode. Whirl then dodged the attack, then fired his blaster at the dodging CGUE.

"Transformable? Interesting." Rau smirked, his mask glinting as his CGUE deployed his sword. He was just about to charge when a massive explosion shook the entire colony.

Out of the billowing, black smoke a massive white ship rocketed outwards in an arc, then hovered on its engines above the curving plain of the inner colony wall.

"The Archangel!?" Murrue called out in surprise. "It survived?"

On the bridge of the newly launched ship, Ensign Natarle Badgirul took in the situation. "Fire slammers one through four at both targets!" she ordered.

Armored panels opened on the main body, firing missiles at the CGUE and Autobot.

"Whoa! Whoa! Friendly fire ain't!" Whirl shouted, shooting down the missiles heading to him. He quickly transformed into his VTOL mode and flew off, trying to lose the last missile. Whirl then started flying in an erratic pattern.

Rau had handled the two missiles that came at him. "How bothersome. This is starting to turn into a bad situation. I better finish my mission to destroy that G-Weapon." The CGUE shifted and dodged a strike from the Moebius Zero's remaining weapon, then loaded the Armor Piercing weapons.

Kira, in the Strike, suddenly realized that the advanced ZAFT mobilesuit was heading his way. Quickly thumbing on the Phase Shift, the gray mobilesuit turned red, white and blue. Reacting instantly, he put the right leg of the Strike in between his friends and Murrue to intercept the brazen attack.

"Slag that jerk!" Hot Shot shouted, unleashing a burst of white hot super-napalm from his gauntlets that the CGUE avoided adroitly. The other Autobots started firing their blasters, but the mobilesuit was just a bit too fast.

The armor piercing rounds had done nothing to the Strike, much to Rau La Creuset's frustration.

"How dare you shoot at my friends!" Kira shouted as the massive cannon of the Launcher Striker lifted up as his sight locked on.

Rau suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of danger and tried to dodge. The shoulder of his CGUE was sheared off by the near miss. His weapon arm fell off and his mobilesuit was partially blinded as the head half-melted. "What power! The fools would put that power in the hands of a single pilot?"

The blast had continued onward and blew a fifty meter hole in the side of the colony that started leaking the air. The CGUE took the very convienent exit and fled the colony.

Hot Shot started looking around frantically even as klaxons went off. "Where is he? Where's Megatron?"

"Calm down, Hot Shot. That was the G-Weapon guardian with Launcher Striker," Perceptor said in his maddeningly monotone. "That was not Megatron. It was a mere 1/10th of this power in any manner."

Swerve and Downshift peeked out from behind different buildings they had hidden behind. "Well, I have to commend their quality of their weapons. Enough to even scare the spark out of ya," Swerve said in a disgrunteled tone.

Murrue had seen their response and had to chuckle at it. Though it was worrying that their enemies had that sort of fire power. Especially if they were the same size as all these other transformers. "Kira, are you all right? Radio the Archangel. We don't want them shooting at us or our allies." Well, at them any more as she winced at the missiles that had been shot at Whirl.

"Strike GUNDAM to Archangel," Kira radioed quickly.

* * *

Natarle and her improvised crew trotted down from the bridge to the starboard landing pod. "Lt. Ramius! Who are these people? And what are these mobilesuits? Are they more secret development projects?"

"These are... This is going to sound crazy, but these are extra terrestrials. They call themselves Autobots," Murrue explained as the Kira tromped the Strike over past the smaller robots.

"Excuse me?" The dark-haired woman looked up at the twenty-five foot robots. Hot Shot waved jauntily to her.

"I'm Hot Shot, leader of this band of Autobots." The flame-painted robot seemed quite was their standard way of greeting unknowns. Perceptor, the real leader of their band, was just a bit too impersonal to really relate to people. And for some reason the leader of the Junkions said Perceptor sounded like an old speak and spell. Whatever that was.

"Right," Downshift said sarcastically. "There's as much chance of him being leader as this turbo reving punk named Hot Rod becoming a Prime."

"Not now, Downshift. Introducing ourselves to totally new and unknown people," Hot Shot said with a tight grin. Downshift just grumbled a bit.

"Extra terrestrial robots? And I shot at them?" Natarle didn't know how bad that would be, but probably very horrible. She might even be demoted.

"Whirl doesn't take it personally. You were just shooting at unknowns-"

"-Who says I don't take it personally?" Whirl tried to complain before he was kicked in the shin by Swerve.

"Shut up, lugnut," the older Transformer said to the flier.

"-and we did blunder into your warzone. Really, all we are here for was to trade for some energy. But our shuttle was destroyed and we're a bit stranded," Hot Shot continued explaining.

"You are Whirl?" Natarle said. "I do apologize, but you did not look like a friendly unit at that time. Lt. Ramius, you must assume command as you are the highest ranking officer here."

That was when an Earth Federation pilot walked up. "Permission to come aboard?" he called out. His helmet was under his arm, revealing his plastered and sweaty blond hair. "Lt. Mu La Flaga."

"Permission to come aboard. Is your mobilearmor able to help defend this ship?" she asked hopefully.

Mu La Flaga watched the young man exit the mobilesuit. "Not reliably. While it still has its main armament, all of its gun-barrels have been lost. Say, are you a Coordinator," he asked Kira directly.

"Ah." Kira looked around nervously. "Yes, I am."

The soldiers that had been with Natarle quickly pulled up their rifles and pointed at him.

"Hey!" Tolle Koenig said, stepping between the soldiers and his friend. "He might be a Coordinator, but he's not with ZAFT. He saved our lives!"

Miriallia Haw, Sai Argyle and Kuzzey Buskirk all nodded in agreement as they moved to protect them.

Hot Shot had narrowed his optics in thought.

"Guns aren't exactly friendly," Swerve commented in a dry tone.

"Weapons hold!" Murrue called out, holding out her hand to stop the soldiers.

"Very commendable," Mu said. "I was just curious, as you managed to pilot that mobilesuit with amazing ability. I saw what the original test pilots were able to do and it wasn't even half as good. I'm sorry if you thought I was blaming you."

"Well, you kids have to come this way. We have a room that you should be safe in. Hot Shot, I would like to discuss matters. Ensign Badgiruel, please expidite retrieving supplies." Murrue accepted Natarle's salute.

"The rest of my team can help with that, if you don't mind? Guys, help them out for some goodwill, okay?" Hot Shot called out his orders quickly.

Though what they didn't see was Perceptor using Cybertronian optical code to give Hot Shot orders. "Affirmative," the scientist said.

"You bet, boss!" Whirl said with a thumb's up. Swerve and Downshift sighed. Looks like it was another work cycle.

* * *

Murrue had moved up to a catwalk so she could talk to Hot Shot more face-to-face. "Sorry about that. This has been a real mess."

"How did this all start here?" Hot Shot asked.

"This battle? By sabotage and stealing top secret mobilesuits. I have to protect the Strike and get this ship out of danger, but we are very weak and undermanned." Murrue ran her hand through her long hair. She really needed to get into uniform rather than the technician's jumpsuit.

"Isn't this colony neutral? I thought some of the immature humans said that," the Autobot asked.

"While Orb is militarily neutral, they had a treaty for military development. It's both ways. Orb will develop their own mobilesuits for the defense of their lands." She shrugged. "The PLANTS might complain, but as long as Orb only defends their territory, there's not a lot they can do in the world's opinion or court."

"Ah, that makes sense. Would the Earth Federation be willing to assist us to getting back to our ship?" Hot Shot asked curiously.

"I don't see why not. This is a very big event for us since we found the fossil of the Space Whale," Murrue explained.

"Space whale fossil?" the Transformer asked.

"Proof of life from outside our world."

Hot Shot's optics blinked in amazement. "You mean you don't know of the dozens of alien races? I mean, space whales are just a big pest really. Kind of like Scraplets."

"Nope. You are our first meeting with intelligent life. I guess we really are the out-back of the galaxy."

"Well Cybertron is currently about 300 light years from the Solar System," Hot Shot noted "Nebulos, Quintessa, and Velocitron are the closest space hubs and they're not very close. Though Junk isn't that far away. They use your radio and television programs as the basis of how they talk these days."

"You're kidding right?" Murrue asked.

"Nope. They do use human signals and I can't understand a word they say," Hot Shot admitted. "In any case, they are like your Junk Guild. Only a lot crazier."

"That's possible?" Murrue asked sounding shocked. She'd heard the Junk Guild do some rather insane things over the years.

"Yes, it is," Hot Shot said. "They're nice though. Their leader Wreck-Gar is a long time ally of the Autobots."

"Is that really his name?" Murrue asked.

"Actually...no," Hot Shot said in bemusement. "It is the closest translation of his name is into English. Cybertronian is something I doubt any human could speak."

Trucks were starting to pull into the landing pads of the Archangel when Murrue saw something that should not have been possible. "Are those G-Weapons?" she asked. She started running along the catwalk towards the trailers being towed by two autobots.

They were not her missing G-Weapons, though they looked very similiar.

Perceptor and Downshift transformed into their robot forms, even as Hot Shot and Swerve could be seen off in the distance dragging a third mobilesuit.

"Black, red and blue? That doesn't look like our G-Weapon," Murrue said with a frown on her pretty features.

"This is the Astray Project," Perceptor said. "We found records of another G-Weapon Project and recovered it."

"We can use all the firepower we can get," Downshift said "Though we probably better not let Kira fix up the OS for the thing so other people can use it."

"Though Perceptor will probably make the thing explode given the big words he'd use," Swerve joked.

"I am a capable programmer, Swerve," Perceptor said in an almost angry monotone. If there was one thing that could upset the Autobot it was impinging on his skills.

"Jeez download a slagging sense of humor," Swerve muttered.

On the overhead, a female voice could be heard. "Paging Lt. Ramius to the bridge. Paging Lt. Ramius to the bridge."

"Now what?" said lieutenant asked.

* * *

Murrue was not happy at all, finding herself the captain of the Archangel despite not being the most senior officer. But Lt. Mu La Flaga was pretty strictly a pilot. One quick meeting between the her, La Flaga and Ensign Natarle Badgiruel was already giving her a headache.

And that led back down to the civilians that she had holed up in one of the enlisted quarters. She hit the attention button.

Sai opened the door, stepping back in surprise. "Um, lieutenant?" He pushed his glasses up his nose in worry.

"Thank you, Sai. Right? Kira, if I could speak to you for a moment? It's concerning the safety of the ship," the white-uniformed woman said. She wondered if she would have remembered to split him from his group like she was trained to do.

"Um, sure, I guess?" the amethyst-eyed boy replied. He followed her down two doors and into another set of bunks in its own room. "What's going on?"

"I wish I could get you kids off the ship, but the colony is on total lockdown. All of the occupied shelters are ready to launch at a moments notice due to the damage," Murrue was explaining. She saw the flinch from the boy. "You had no idea how powerful the Launcher Striker was."

Kira nodded. "But why did you want to talk to me?" He had a suddenly bad premonition.

"You're the only one that can use the Strike. Heck, I wish I had three more of you and I might feel slightly better. Hot Shot has said the Autobots will help, but I guess only one of them can fly at all. The rest are ground forces. They are likely to send out more forces."

"I don't want to fight," the young coordinator said morosely.

"And I don't really want you to, but if you don't our chance of _all_ of us surviving is not good." Murrue put her hand on Kira's shoulder. "You want to protect your friends, don't you?"

He glared at her, but nodded. "Of course."

"Then will you pilot the Strike?"

Kira sighed and then nodded. He wanted to stay out of this war. He didn't want to have to fight his friend Athrun again and possible kill him. Or be killed by him. He then remembered that even the woman in front of him could no longer get the Gundam working after his modifications to the OS of the unit. He might be the only person on this ship or even in the Earth Alliance that could get it to work for them now.

Though Kira prayed that he and Athrun could manage to survive this war and be friends again after it was over.

Klaxons started to sound and the overhead started to blare out with orders for the soldiers to man battle-stations.

On the bridge, the sensor officer was starting to panic as Murrue settled herself into the command chair. "We are picking up three more GINNs... and G-Weapon GAT-X303 Aegis. I'm also getting readings of Anti-Fortress weapons!"

"They are using our own mobilesuit against us?" Natarle griped in anger.

"Raise ship. Lt. La Flaga, take over CiC while Ensign Badgirguel handles communication," Murrue ordered.

"I would be better served directing weapons," Natarle replied.

"No, it is too important to communicate with the Strike and the Autobots. You have your orders, ensign." Murrue stared through armored windows of _her_ bridge. "Prepare for battle."

* * *

The Gundam Strike launched, but was directed to land on top of the _Archangel _and meet up with the Autobots. Kira looked over controls as he saw the much smaller forms of Hot Shot, Downshift, Swerve and Perceptor. Whirl rocketed forward, engines at full thrust in his flight form.

"What should I do?" Kira asked in worry.

"Slagging officer drafting a protie into battle," Downshift said vehemently.

"Murrue has no choice. The enemy is attacking in overwhelming force. Designate Strike should intercept the enemy GINN mobilesuits in support of Whirl. Let him take the battle to them. The rest of the Autobots will defend Archangel," Perceptor ordered firmly. The Strike blasted off to try and keep up with the VTOL.

"Time to show you guardians what an Autobot can really do! Full speed dash attack!" Whirl shouted, even as he blitzed past Miguel, the Magic Bullet as he unleashed a hail of blaster fire.

"It's that odd transforming mobilesuit that La Creuset warned us about. How did those naturals manage to miniaturize energy weapons in such a manner?" the ZAFT lead pilot complained. "So fast!" Alarms blared in his GINN as it warned him of someone locking on behind the mobilesuit. "That mobilesuit?"

Miguel's GINN managed to dodge the Strike's anti-ship sword, though it was closer than he would have liked.

"Why don't you just leave us alone!" Kira shouted as he sent the Sword Strike to try and take out the long ranged GINN out. He should be able to hit its gun.

Another GINN lined up an attack, firing a heavy missile at the Archangel as it flew up into the center, low centrifical section of the O'Neil type space station. "Scratch one ship," he crowed.

"Evade to port, full power!" Murrue shouted to her crew.

The massive battleship swerved with far more agility than its size should have allowed. On the top of it, the four Autobots added their firepower to the CWIS chainguns, detonating the two missiles with ease. Inside, Mu La Flaga was very happy for their help, as this crew was incredibly green.

Miguel's GINN was firing as fast as its large ion cannon could cool down. He was so incensed at the Strike's dodging, he did not care that he was taking out support beams. It was not until he saw a kilomete long support strut smash into the curved inner surface that he even noted something was going on.

"Mother? Father? You bastard!" Kira shouted as it really sunk in that his home was in dire danger. His next slash was dodged, so he attempted to use one of the other weapons of the Sword Striker. He sent a spinning beam-boomarang that the GINN dodged again. But Miguel had not expected it to spin back and lopped off both legs.

The Strike charged forward, shearing the top of the GINN off at the shoulder. Inside the GINN, Miguel realized that he whole mobilesuit was in danger of exploded.

"Miguel!" Athrun shouted from further back where he had been giving support to the GINNs attacking the _Archangel_. Could Kira really have done all that? With narrowed eyes in anger, he charged the red, white and blue mobilesuit while activating his own built in beam-saber.

Back on top of the Archangel, Perceptor was starting to get worried. "Heliopolis is taking extreme punishment. Recommend that we defeat ZAFT forces as quickly as possible with minimum force."

"You have any tactics for _how_ to do that, boss?" Hot Shot shouted as he blasted another missile out of the sky.

"We always could just Wreck and Rule," Downshift commented almost with a shrug.

"That is the worst idea for this," Perceptor stated and almost glared, a large feat for the Autobot that had removed most of his emotions.

"Oh Primus," Hot Shot said. "Is that GINN armed with something looks like it should be attached to Shockwave?"

"This will not end well," Downshift grumbled.

The Autobots kept firing at the GINN armed with another heavy ion cannon. Massive green beams shot out from the Archangel, taking out the GINN and the major central shaft behind it. Supports that were running from it to the curving outer wall started snapping in a choreography of destruction.

Heliopolis control launched all shelters as life pods as centrifical force started to rip the colony apart. In the center of the destruction, the Strike and the Aegis were swept apart.


	3. Confrontation

"Keep searching for the Strike. Have the Autobots finished embarking?" Lt. Murrue Ramius asked Ensign Nartarle Badgiruel who was sitting at the communication's console.

"The only one that hasn't is Whirl. It looks like he got sucked up into a- Belay that, we have a communication link. It's Whirl. And he's found the Strike!" Natarle called out with a tired smile.

"Direct them to the port landing bay then," the captain of the ship called out.

Out in space, Whirl had managed to get a response finally from the Strike. "Hey, kid! You did a great job!"

"How is this result great?" the young coordinator asked in anger.

"You are still alive and you have your ship to go back to. That's a win in my book," Whirl said softly.

Kira looked out at the destruction and debris and sure didn't feel like he'd won anything. He also wondered if that mysterious girl he got to one of the shelters before he ended up piloting the Strike Gundam was still alive. His mind drifted to wondering what she had wanted before the attack.

The young coordinator considered what would happen next. He'd only ended up in a war and encountered aliens from outer space. And given their weapons, space wasn't a safe place. It saddened Kira a bit that humanity wasn't that different from the other races out there in the universe.

That was when Whirl spotted the lifepod that was transmitting that it was losing pressure. "We better get this defect inside the ship as soon as possible," he told Kira. He opened a communication line to the _Archangel_. "Yo! Got a busted life pod with dying humans. We're coming in fast. Get some people ready to help them."

"That lifepod can't come on a battleship. They'll have to be rescued-" Natarle started to countermand.

"It's leaking that stuff you guys breath. Unless you are okay with them dying?" the Autobot asked.

"No, she is not, Whirl. You are clear to land." Murrue pushed the button to close the communication. "Ensign Badguriel, I expect major decision to be forwarded to myself _before_ you nearly antagonize our first contact situation. Don't let this sort of situation happen again."

"Yes, sir!" Natarle said as she snapped a salute.

"Go assist in rescuing the civilians. And maybe think about apologizing to Whirl again."

The young woman winced and nodded, heading to the elevator.

In the main Gundam bay Hot Shot helped unload the various survivors. While also helping, Perceptor was pondering how to build booster rockets that could increase the speed of a Terran ship so they could reach Jovian space. The real problems weren't for the Autobots humans on the other hand due to the effects of zero gravity would be devastated getting from Earth orbit to Jupiter. And Perceptor wasn't sure their ships could have enough food and spare parts for such a trip with their current technology.

"You're Sai's friend, aren't you?" Flay was shouting out to Kira. She had recognized him and leaped off towards him, meeting him half-way between the lifepod and the Strike Gundam.

"That's right. Are you all right?" Kira had grabbed her to stop her momentum as his little robotic bird fluttered around in Zero-G. Athrun must have figured out a way for the wings to work here.

"Have we been captured? Is this a ZAFT warship?" the redhead asked in an almost panic.

"No, this is an Earth Federation ship. These were their first mobilesuits," the young coordinator replied.

"Hang on, you two. We don't want you just floating there," Hot Shot called out as he reached up.

"Thanks, Hot Shot!" Kira called out the two kids were pushed against the ground. Their shoes clicked to the ground.

"That's a small mobilesuit," the young teen said.

"Slag that. I'm not a mobilesuit. I'm a Transformer. Name's Hot Shot, darling," the Autobot replied with a quirky grin.

"He's a real live extra-solar _alien_!" Kira smiled at her confusion. "They were coming to Heliopolis to just get some energy and then they were going to leave. But he's a natural, living robot."

"Really? That's so amazing!" Flay exclaimed. "It's very nice to meet you, Mr. Robot!"

"Don't you already have a girlfriend, Hot Shot?" Swerve asked as he watched the human rescue group.

"Yeah Arcee can be really crazy when she's angry," Downshift commented.

"Very funny," Hot Shot grumbled.

"Wait, you have gender?!" Kira exclaimed in confusion.

"Of course we do," Downshift explained. "Why won't we? I mean it isn't involved in our creation of new Transformers and the first human to suggest it does gets shot."

"No need to go there, Downshift," Hot Shot said. "For a lot of races, it is part of their procreation."

None of the Autobots had an idea of why the two kids were embarrassed.

"That reminds me, we should let the Minicons stretch their servos," Swerve said. He grabbed what appeared to be part of his body and tossed it 'down' to the ground.

With the ratcheting transformation sound, it turned into red Autobot that was only seven foot tall. It seemed to glare at Swerve. "Bzzt-p'tank!"

"Sorry, Roadhandler."

Cheif Murdoch looked up in worry. "So, uh, exactly how many Autobots are you guys?"

Hot Shot started laughing. He detached what looked to be a turbine, tossing it to the ground. It transformed into an six and a half foot tall orange robot. "This here is Jolt, my Minicon. I'm pretty lucky, I only have the one. Consider them an intermediate stage between a protoform and a full fledged Autobot."

Jolt glared a bit, but accepted the pat on his back.

"I'm the unlucky Autobot. I've got three of the ex-proties," Whirl said with a laugh as he release three mini-Autobots. "This is Skysickle, Grip-Lock and Thunderstick. Although I think that Skysickle is ready to evolve and adapt his own energon generator."

Everyone looked over to Perceptor, who looked calmly back. "This unit does not currently have any ancillary Minicons."

Downshift held up his hands. "Me neither. Hot Shot was enough to make me swear off helping the pests for at least a hundred vorns."

"So they are... Autobot teens?" Kira said. "Not children, but not quite adults either?" He was looking at the trio of red, blue and green minicons with metallic highlights.

"Yeah, they haven't really developed enough to handle full size bulk frames," Downshift said "And the last time we rushed a group of Transformers to adulthood well...the Dinobots eventually turned out halfway right. Sort of."

All of the other adult Autobots shuddered at that. Kira had this feeling that he should avoid those Dinobots at all costs.

From the edge of the bay, Natarle nodded. "That's very amazing, Autobots. And Whirl, I owe you an apology. My captain has pinned my ears back for my lack of forethought." The dark-haired officer hated to admit it, but Murrue was correct. She winced as she saw their confusion. "I'm afraid that I'm a bit prone to trying to follow the regs. It... almost failed me in the academy."

"Nothing wrong about following the regulations when you can, ma'am. But there's times when you really have to follow your spark to doing what is right, not necessarily what is written down." Whirl rubbed his head. "Of course, knowing the rules so you know when you are deviating from them is important."

"Hey, at least you are willing to admit you made a mistake," Hot Shot called out. "Whirl still has a hard time with that."

"He's a Wrecker," Downshift commented dryly. "They're usually dead before they know they've made a mistake."

"A what?" Cheif Murdoch asked.

"The Wreckers are an elite commando team put together by Emirate Xaaron," Perceptor stated in a tone of all boring teachers everywhere. "They have no regard for tactics and are well known for completing suicide missions."

"And if I meet Fistitron I'm running away," Whirl said with a shudder. "He's the biggest Wreckers fanboy on the datanets."

All of the Minicons were making strange, computer and electronic sounds as they were swarming over the huge (to them) form of the red ASTRAY series mobilesuit. Roadhandler slipped inside and started to turn different screens on.

"Brzzt-ping-clank-vrrr?" the Minicon called out.

Outside, the yellow Jolt was conversing with the last three Minicons; Skysickle, Thunderstick and Grip-Lock. They sounded like a random series of computers and motivators as they argued. Jolt then looked over at Perceptor. "Perceptor fzzzt-ping-ting-ting-vooo?"

"That is correct, Jolt. We intend to add Energon convertors to them. That will remove their short operational time limit." Perceptor almost seemed smug about that.

"What is an energon convertor? Actually," Natarle asked very curiously, "what is Energon?"

"Energon is distilled energy extracted into an easy to store form that is used up without any residue. It can lay there for hundred of thousands of vorns and easily power us or our technology." The leader of this band of Autobots opened a panel and pulled out a small, glowing pink cube. "This is its normal form."

"Didn't we give them datatraxs on how to speak so humans could understand them?" Swerve whispered to Whirl.

"That was your job!" he called right back.

Swerve blinked as he realized it was. "Oops."

Natarle was looking over the Minicons, then the red ASTRAY. "So what were they saying, if it isn't intruding?"

Hot Shot smirked. "They were wondering if they could fit in there and actual pilot those things. Skysickle thinks it would be 'funny' to actually be bigger than us for a little while." He flicked his forefinger against the red and black Minicon, sending it spinning through the low gravity.

"You do know he can turn into a gun as a third form right?" Whirl asked sounding amused.

The tone that the smaller Autobot made was quite obvious that he was yelling right back. He transformed into a small VTOL and started zooming past Hot Shot's head multiple times.

"Protie runt!"

"Minicons, report for upgrade of your Datatrax vocal systems," Perceptor called out loudly, if not with any more emotion.

The five Minicons rushed over to him as he started to open up ports on his system to interface with the much smaller Autobots.

"That was-" Kira started to say.

Flay finished with, "-amazing!"

"All hands, prepare for acceleration! All hands, prepare for acceleration!" came a male's voice over the overhead.

The Archangel shuddered as a missile tube was used to fire a drone.

Flay suddenly held herself closer to Kira. "I almost forgot for a second. This is a warship."

"Let me take you to Sai. He can look after you," the young coordinator said softly. There were times he hated his friend for how lucky he was.

"Thanks. You said your name was Kira, right?"

* * *

It was a few hours later... and Murrue's desperate bid to lose the ZAFT forces had failed.

"We're going to be boxed in soon," Mu La Flaga said. "That ship is going to overtake us and I bet you that the ship in front of us will soon launch whatever mobilesuits it has."

"Then we need a way to break through to Artemis," Murrue said in frustration. "We need to know how many resources we have. Let's go talk to the Autobots. I still can't believe they had these Minicons though."

Natarle nodded as she led them down to the main bay. "Hot Shot! Perceptor! Can we talk?"

Hot Shot tromped over. "I take it the news isn't good?"

"They had two ships and they didn't fall for our misdirection. They've got us in a pincer," Murrue explained. "Now we're trying to come up with a plan that will allow us and the civilians we took on to survive."

"You were headed to this Artemis place, right?" Hot Shot asked curiously. "I wonder if we shouldn't just try to power our way through."

Perceptor nodded. "Mobeius Zero mobilearmor, ASTRAY mobilesuits and Gundam Strike mobilesuit are all combat capable; only needing pilots. Autobots will work to defend _Archangel _with the crew."

The eight other Autobots were watching curiously. Whirl thought he should be included in the plan to power through the ZAFT forces.

"Now if I only had enough pilots. The Strike is our most powerful and versatile unit. Mu La Flaga, if you would talk to Kira about please piloting it in defense of the ship?"

"Of course, ma'am." He saluted sharply. "It'll be good to get back in my Zero."

"Wouldn't one of the ASTRAY be better?" Natarle asked in confusion.

"I wouldn't know how to pilot a unit like that. It took me months to figure out my Zero," Mu admitted.

"We can! We can!" Roadhandler suddenly shouted. He clattered over to the red ASTRAY fast. "We added sub-control linkage and I understand all the controls!"

Jolt and Skysickle suddenly charged over to the gold and white ASTRAY. "Mine!" they shouted as they tried to fight to get into the cockpit.

"Hey! Don't break the mobilesuits!" Murdoch shouted loudly.

Thunderstick and Grip-Lock started to move towards the last, blue mobilesuit. Whirl managed to grab Grip-Lock, but missed Thunderstick who made it inside. Jolt ended up getting kicked out of the gold mobilesuit and the door closed in his face.

"Ahhh! I wanted to be big for once!" the little yellow Autobot shouted as he pounded on the mobilesuit's armored hatch. "No fair!"

"Um," Murrue called out cautiously. "Why aren't they fighting over the Strike?"

"Whatever Kira did, it's a bit funky. It's hard for us to work with, even being robots," Whirl said as he held back the little green and silver Autobot. "Pipe down. You can help the captain on this bridge, I'm sure. I don't want to lose you outside, okay?"

"Okay, Whirl," Grip-Lock said trying to not sound disappointed.

Kira found it weird that he was going to be working with aliens fight other humans. It reminded him of some sci fi novels he and Athrun used to read in prep school. Only now it wasn't fiction. It was real and likely to get very ugly.

* * *

Commander Rau Le Crueset was sitting on the bridge of the Nazca class cruiser as the Aegis was being prepped to launch when the strange, white legged ship was spotted.

"Contact! Legged ship has broken stealth and almost exactly where you said, sir!" the sensor operator called out. "Reading multiple launches. G-Weapon Strike and Moebius Zero detected."

Rau just smirked. So Mu La Flaga had survived and joined that ship.

"New contacts. Two unknown mobilesuits. Silhouette is ninety percent match to G-Weapon Strike. Assigning designation Bandit Gold Three and Bandit Blue Four." One more minuted and he called out again. "Two new contacts. Confirming Bandit Red Five and Bandit Six. One more Strike class G-Weapon and that really weird Orb VTOL."

Ades looked over at his commander in shock. "Why didn't they use these first?"

The white-jacketed officer was looking at the professional, enemy formation in front of him on the display. "Change of orders." Rau hit some buttons on the seat's rest. "Athrun, prepare to sortee in _defense _of the ship. They have somehow become heavily reinforced. They outnumber us in mobilesuits."

Athrun was sitting in his Aegis as it was laying ready to launch in the Versalius's linear accelerator. "This unit is not optimally designed for defense, sir."

"Just do your best," Rau said from the bridge. "What is the legged-ship's course?"

"Coming straight at us at full speed, sir!"

Ades and La Crueset shared a strained look. The masked commander was the one that had to make a hard decision. "Break off intercept. Port ninety degrees, full power and launch the Aegis! Drop anti-beam cannisters!"

The organic, aqua-green ship spun to it's left and fired its thrusters as cannister shot out. With bursts of strange particles, they covered the ship as it moved to escape.

Whirl did a barrel roll as he flew at the ZAFT ship. "Seems they aren't total idiots over there." He then tested if that gas could effect his weapons by firing. To his shock it lessened the damage considerably. Whirl raised his opinion on human weapons yet again.

Perceptor noticed the weapon and how it worked. He worked on a matter based weapon since that would be left alone by the gas. He also pondered making some glass gun bombs. The only problem would to be build them with human technology since his lab was on the Steel Haven and out of reach.

Athrun found himself in the fight of his life as the ASTRAY units moved like the pilots could either see the future or were mentally plugged directly into the suits. The red unit had pulled out a beam saber and Athrun barely avoided being cut in half by it. Athrun would have been extremely worried and glad if he knew Roadhandler was simply mimicing what he had seen Starsaber do on some datatrax videos. But he was not a red-jacket for nothing, activating three beam saber; both arms and one of his knees. Roadhandler had _not_ been expecting that and backed off quickly.

Skysickle then fired the heavy beam cannon he gotten out of the Archangel's armory for the Gold Astray. The massive beam and the amount of damage it did even reduced by the anti-beam gas made Skysickle wonder if he could get a weapon like this on his bulk body.

The Vesalius opened fire back on the Gold Astray with the railguns as they weren't effected by the anti-beam gas. Skysickle was not that young though, avoiding the attack with relative ease. "Why don't you just slagging retreat!?" the red and black Minicon shouted angrily.

The Strike was busy firing its heavy beam cannon from the Launcher Striker. It was also being degraded by the anti-beam cannisters, but he was easily hitting the large ship.

"Damage is rising," Ades warned the ZAFT commander.

"Recall Athrun and fire flack missiles!" Rau Le Crueset called out. The _Versalius _shuddered again. "Warn the Gamow not to attack no matter what. They won't have the speed to disengage like we can. Launch retreat flares."

On the bridge of the _Archangel_, Murrue noted the tri-colored flares that burst in space. "Recall all mobilesuits. Thank the Autobots and get them back inside."

Perceptor and Hot Shot looked on at the battle from the top of the _Archangel_. "We have won a strategic battle," the leader of the Autobots said in his mono-tone way.

"Heck, this is probably the best win we've been involved in for dozens of vorns, Perceptor. I think our guys really needed that." Hot Shot nodded at Swerve and Downshift as they cheered noisily.

"Affirmative."

"Man, I hope you finish whatever you were working on that made you disable your emotion matrix, boss." The red and yellow Autobot shook his head sadly at the scientifically minded Perceptor.

"Unneeded."

* * *

Out by Jupiter, another flare of hyperspace energies shot out a ship. This IG-2000 class vessel was called the Death's Head and the solo person on the ship looked forward to adding Drift's sword to his collection. Twin red energy-sails flared as the ship started to curve around the massive planet. It's tri-lateral engines powered up.

Screens on board the ship barely illuminated anything. But they showed multiple paths. One went to an unforgiving moon, but a smaller and more energetic path that led to a bright beacon of radio signals closer to the sun.

An unforgiving metal face creased in a cold smile. "Well, well, Drift. It looks like you left your main ship behind. That was a mistake you will never forget. In this life, anyways."


	4. Battle and Retreat

Artemis hung in space, like a glowing, faceted jewel. Outside the boundary of its shields, the Archangel awaited a shuttle carrying the diplomats and Rear Admiral Garcia.

A lieutenant was right behind the two marines, leading the way for the stocky admiral. "Lt. Murre Ramius? I'm. Lt. Michelle Anders. This is, of course, Rear Admiral Gerard Garcia of Artemis. You informed us of a first contact situation and were are here to evaluate the situation."

Admiral Garcia floated down to the ground. "Lt. Ramius, I hope you have some amazing evidence of the extraodinary claims you have made."

Murrue winced at that, but nodded as she gestured at her two officers. "Of course, admiral. This is Lt. Mu La Flaga and Ensign Natarle Badguriel." She then turned to the flaming red and yellow robot. "These are the Autobots known as Hot Shot, Perceptor, Whirl, Swerve and Downshift. They are extra-solar entities that were caught up in our battle and their aid has been invaluable in protecting this ship and its prototypes."

"Greetings admiral! Your officers acted with remarkable courage in a trying situation," Hot Shot called out. He held out a finger so that they could 'shake hands'. Downshift rolled his optics.

After cautiously shaking the apendage, the admiral continued with, "So they just happened be at Heliopolis just before it was destroyed?"

"Negatory, our shuttle was attacked by the ZAFT forces assaulting the colony. It and Autobot Drift were lost as another ship collided and destroyed, stranding us in near Earth orbit," Perceptor explained. Whirl's optics narrowed. He gave off a thousand yard stare as he recalled Drift's death, and the many, many Wreckers he had seen fall in battle over the cycles. And if anything Drift's death angered him the most. It had nothing to do with their own war.

"Yeah, the jerks just started shooting at as. And we were going to try to stay under the radar, so to speak," Whirl said in an aggravated tone. "All we wanted was a bit of energy and we would have left everything alone. We don't want to get involved in your fight or bring our war to you."

Garcia frowned at that. "That is... very thoughtful of you. The report Lt. Ramius sent us mentioned that you are trying to regain your homeland?"

"That's correct, admiral. The Transformers are fighting a civil war between themselves, the Autobots, against the Decepticons." Murrue frowned as she thought. "Excuse me, Hot Shot? How long has this civil war been going on?"

"Millions of your stellar cycle, unfortunately. It's been such a pain, fighting back and forth," the energetic second in command of the Autobots admitted.

"I can see why you would not want to involve being such as us that are so short lived then," Garcia said in a strangled voice. "Lt. Ramius, it appears you have the right of this situation. Take me to your bridge so we can get the ship docked and supplied."

"Thank you. I'm sure the civilians aboard would be very happy to be off and in a safe harbor."

At this point having a Coordinator they had picked up as a pilot was completely tame. And someone had to ask Mu La Flaga what it was like to have alien robots and a Coordinator as his wingmen.

The civilians were never so happy as when they saw officers and navy crew with supplies at the entrance of the _Archangel_.

* * *

Garcia was torn. He had found out that any hint of racism likely would be commented on by the Autobots and that would shoot any promotion full of holes. And it was usually such a useful lever to force the super-smart coordinators to build better weapons.

And the Autobots also had technology the Earth Alliance needed. What he'd heard of Energon was beyond interesting, and that they got the Astray units to run off it, thought it was untested. Still if it was a fuel source the N-Jammers didn't effect then it was worth looking into.

There was also the fact they had faster then light drives of some kind. Even their slower then light drives were impressive given they made what would take six months for an Earth ship in six hours. While he was sure there were groups inside the Earth Alliance that would love to cut open the Autobots and see how they ticked, he knew from the reports on how well they fought it would be a bad idea to use force.

The last thing they needed was to anger possibly new allies. Garcia also considered them too goody-goody for certain missions. Still you had to take what you can get. Little did the Rear Admiral know he should have been careful what he wished for.

"So what do you think of the admiral?" Swerve asked in his native cybertronian.

"If he was a Wrecker we'd already be warming up the smelting pool," Whirl said in an overly bland tone, which usually let people know the depths of his dislike. "Emirate Xaaron is the only bot who used to be in politics I can recall fighting worth slag."

"That doesn't make him our enemy guys," Hot Shot commented.

"Doesn't make him much of an ally either," Whirl replied nastily.

"I mean he really hasn't done anything," Swerve said hotly. "And so he's not like Starsaber or Optimus Prime as a leader. At least he's not like Grimlock."

"I just have a feeling in my spark," Whirl said sincerely. "And frankly my feelings have been the only thing to keep me alive half the time."

Sai tried listening to the conversation and turned to Grip-Lock and asked, "What they are talking about?"

"Ah, their opinion on the admiral," Grip-Lock diplomatically said.

"Hey what are the Autobot admirals like?" Sai asked.

"They're legends," Grip-Lock said with a happy smile. "They tend to lead from the front and their actions are the stuff of epic stories. There's of course Optimus Prime. He's our leader and the Matrix Bearer."

"Freedom is the right of all sentient beings," Jolt espoused with vigor, saying one of Optimus's favorite points.

"Then there's Starsaber," Grip-Lock said "He's been said to be the greatest swordsman in the galaxy. Roadhauler was showing off with stuff Starsaber has done on the datanets in his fight."

"Not that it did him a lot of good against the guy in that mobile suit." Jolt commented.

"Slag off glitchhead," Roadhauler grumbled.

"There's Impactor," Grip-Lock said "He's the field leader of the Wreckers. I've actually met him and he's really cool. The kind of guy that can inspire people even on the suicidal missions the Wreckers take."

"And he has a hook for a hand." Thunderstick said "Long story on how he got that."

"And there's... Grimlock," Grip-Lock said tentatively. "He's tactically brilliant but he's really anti-social. I mean he managed to steal a Decepticon ship out of dry lock and even changed the access codes and such so the Cons can't take it back."

"Wow," Sai commented in wonder. "They certainly sound more interesting then our admirals."

Two hundred feet away, Garcia was looking at the Strike in barely concealed avarice. "So how is it going, Lt. Shardin?" he called out to one of the best mobilesuit pilots of Artemis.

"Bloody bullocks, is wat it 'es. The mobilesuit is at one hundred percent, but I canna get 'et to move," the pilot called out. "You'd have to be a coordinator."

"Can't you revert it to default programming?" the rear admiral asked.

"That's even more useless. Might as well put a gun 'te me own head and pull de trigger," he called back down. "I can almost get 'eet."

Skysickle shook his head. Shouldn't the fact they never bothered fighting over the Strike tell them Kira's upgrades to the OS made it so there was likely only one person on this ship that could get the Gundam to work? Maybe another Coordinator could get Strike moving but Skysickle doubted any of them would test that theory.

Then a lot of swearing came from inside the Strike as Lt. Shardin found the OS more of a pain in the rear then he first thought. He wasn't sure if he should shake Kira Yamato's hand or punch the kid in the face for his on-the-fly alternation of the OS of the Strike. It was amazing, yet customized for only him. It just seemed impossible for anyone else to get the unit moving.

'Which explains why Flaga said I'd need good luck,' Shardin mused. The last thing Shardin saw as an option was to build a completely new OS for the Strike. Though right now there wasn't really time to scratch build one and test it. Other then possibly letting Perceptor help him, but Shardin didn't exactly trust the Autobot Scientist enough for that.

Up in the shadows near an airlock, a young teen entered and then started watching all of Sai's friends as they floated in the work area with the Autobots. She then saw Skysickle transform into a small helicopter and fly around. The young man with brown hair and purple eyes laughed along with his friends. Her gaze drifted from the coordinator to the robots. The almost human boy that she had been smitten by his appearance and the strangely friendly _living_ robots.

"So think you can build the Earth Alliance weapon access ports the Gold Astray has for the other two?" Swerve asked Perceptor.

"Easily," Perceptor stated in his flat way.

"Hey, Flay," Hot Shot called out. "Nice to see you again."

Flay blushed a bit remembering how the whole talk on gender and reproduction got started. She wondered if there really any topics they won't discuss in public. Or honestly how they made more Transformers.

"Yo, Flay," Swerve said and then waved at her.

She was surprised that the Autobots remembered her name.

"So what do you do for fun?" Jolt asked "We play mecha-soccer or cyber poker."

"Or listen to shock pop." Grip-Lock commented.

"You're the only one that likes it." Thunderstick said "I think its as bad as Quarian thrash."

As the two argued over taste in music Roadhauler commented "And this why don't let either of them pick the music."

The whole thing was surreal to Flay. She had friends argue over tastes in music like that. The Transformers were becoming more and more 'human' in their actions to her.

"Well I like... liked to hang out with my friends," Flay said carefully.

"So did I," Downshift replied with a nod. "Going with my friends to see the greats like Blurr, Override, Windcharger and Fasttrack race. Or hang out at Maccadam's Old Oil House and see a professional Cyber-Soccer game."

Flay wondered what races were like when the drivers were the cars. Or what exactly the differences between soccer and Cyber-Soccer were.

It was then a loud rattling sound filled the Gundam bay. It was intermixed with what sounded like a dial up modem dieing with a jackhammer being used in the background. Glass started to shake from the force of the sounds. It was then the sounds of shattering glass and explosions were added to the mix. Grip-Lock started to dance to the sounds. The dance kind of resembled The Robot.

"Cease this noise at once!" Perceptor yelled.

The noise stopped and Gracia after uncovering his ears yelled "What the hell was that??!"

"That was Shock Pop," Swerve said while banging the side of his head. "Trust me, it's not for everyone even among us."

Garcia made a note to never be within a two mile radius of a Shock Pop concert if there ever was one on Earth. It sounded more like noise pollution then any form of art.

An amused Thunderstick said, "See I told you they won't like it."

"The Tas Bots and their hard beats are a bit difficult for first time listeners." Grip-Lock mused, "Maybe some Convoy League would go over better."

"Wasn't one of their songs just them beating a wall with a quarter staff for a breem?" Jolt asked with a laugh.

"That was someone else," Grip-Lock declared quickly.

"I swear they use dark science to make Shock Pop," Whirl commented with a sigh. Everyone human took that as being a slang Transformers term for magic. If they asked Perceptor he'd have informed them that the two are similar in many respects but dark science wasn't magic.

* * *

"What do you mean we can't get off the _Archangel_?" a civilian businessman shouted in the mess hall.

"The admiral has decided that he will deliver all of you to Orb's control. They aren't willing to send a ship, but they asked us to deliver all of you to Copernicus on the Moon." The officer was sweating it a little bit. "Admiral Garcia has detached two ships from his anchorage and is personally going to take command of the _Archangel_ to get you guys all to the Moon."

"Why can't you let us get on a shuttle to Earth?" a woman shouted from the back of the group.

"Earth Alliance shuttles have no immunity to being fired upon. Your safety is our paramount priority!" he called out.

Kira was sitting next to his friend. "Do you think they are telling the truth, Kuzzey?"

The slightly stouter boy nodded. "I think so. I mean, he's actually been by to see us-"

"Ah, there you are, Flay!" Admiral Gerard Garcia called out. "I wanted to personally deliver a message for you." He handed the electronic pad to her. "Vice Minister Allster was incredibly happy to find out that you survived and is really looking forward to the rendezvous."

Kira, Kuzzey, Miriallia and Tolle all blinked at that as Sai... well, sighed. The cat was now out of the bag.

"Your father is a Vice Minister?" Miriallia asked in bewilderment.

"Vice Minister of the Atlantic Federation, that's right," Admiral Garcia said with his best smile. That smile became slightly strained as two Minicons tromped by down the hall very loudly. "We'll be launching here in just an hour. So everyone get back to your quarters and ready to leave."

Flay had a forced smile on her face. Inside she was annoyed that yet another officer was sucking up because of who her father was. At least Kira and the Autobots didn't care. It was frankly refreshing to her. If anything she was tired of political toadies and suck ups. Flay wondered what exactly an "Emirate" meant for the Transformers. Was it a political title like an emir? Part of the Transformer's name? Though she couldn't imagine her father leading a crack team of commandos like that Xaaron person.

"And you knew about this Sai?" Tolle asked.

"Yes I did," Sai said "And I kept quiet about it." Because of people like Admiral Garcia was left unsaid but understood by them.

Kira could understand how Flay wanted to avoid that kind of attention. Groups like Blue Cosmos would love to kill him. There were people that didn't see him or Arthun as human due to the genetic modifications that had been made to them.

"Hey guys," Jolt said with a small girl riding on his shoulder "This is Elle."

"Glitchheads," Elle said to them. She had that innocent smile that only small children had.

Flay looked at Jolt and had this feeling that wasn't a word little girls should be using. If she asked one of the other Autobots they'd tell her it was definitely not a nice word. She grabbed the young child. "Elle, that's a bad word. And Jolt should not be teaching you something like that!"

"Jolt!" Kira said with a frown. "Elle's barely more than a baby. She's only four years old. That's only 1/20th of a Vorn! Don't teach her something like that!"

"But she can run and talk!" Jolt said defensively.

Roadhandler sighed. "Come on, Jolt. I'll let you explain why you were trying to corrupt a proto-form to Whirl."

"Are you kidding, he'll pound the snot out of me!?" the yellow minicon shouted.

"Then maybe you deserve it, lunkhead!" Roadhandler could not believe his Minicon buddy sometimes.

"LUNKHEAD!" Elle squealed happily. "Teach me more words, Jolt!"

Flay smile over at Kira for helping with the child, before her face fell. She was _not_ supposed to like the space monster... She looked away while her frown deepened. That was not right either. The Autobots said that there were far worse things in the galaxy.

For their normally jovial voice to talk of such hate when the mentioned Decepticons... that worried her. And maybe Coordinators were not so bad, she said to herself with a strange feeling of stubbornness.

"Maybe I'll tell you the names of the Dinobots later," Jolt said as he gave them a thumb's up.

"One of them actually used a swearword as his name," Roadhauler explained to the others while he grabbed Jolt in a headlock to drag him off. "And I am dead serious."

* * *

The red spaceship was slowing down at the edge of the Artemis's controlled space. It's solar sails disengaged even as the Transformer onboard the ship keyed in the comunication system.

"This is Artemis Anchorage to unidentified warship. Please state your intentions or leave this area immediately."

"This is Lockdown. Just a Transformer that is trying to track down an old buddy-" the bounty hunter said with a grin.

"So what is the name of this 'old friend' that came anyway?" Hot Shot asked.

"He said his name was Lockdown and..." Sai said before being cut off.

"Ready your guns," Whirl yelled. "We got a slagger that likes to take body parts coming."

"Friend? My reactor linkage!" Downshift shouted out. They quickly headed towards the launching bay of the _Archangel_.

Kira was over by the Strike, finding himself jumping into the mobilesuit and loading his optimized command controls instead of the barely tweaked settings the technicians from Artemis had worked on. "I can't let them be harmed," he said to himself.

Chief Murdoch started yelling at his expanded crew when the Gundam Strike stood up, its phaseshift activating automatically. The articulated robotic arms loaded the Sword Striker on the Gundam fast.

"This is Kira Yamato! I'm going out to help the Autobots!" he called out over the communication system.

Lt. Commander Murrue Ramius looked over from where she was directing her ship as it tried to track the fast flying enemy transformer. "What's going on?"

"My god, he's killed three mobilearmors already!" one of the new bridge officers called out, showing a screen that had Lockdown blasting three mobilearmors. Each one exploded, killing their pilots.

Murrue was starting to see why the Autobots didn't want to stick around Earth. And this was just a single Decepticon that was attacking them. She actually wondered if they'd have to call on Orb and ZAFT for help if more Decepticons arrived in the Solar System.

Lockdown looked at the destroyed mobilearmors with annoyance. They were simply too large for him to take pieces for his trophy collection. He then scanned the ships trying to figure out where the Autobots and that traitor Drift would be. Lockdown then dodged laser fire from the Autobots.

"Well, well. Looks like a bunch of drowning rats," Lockdown said nastily. He knew he was on a whole different level than these Autobots. The _Steel Haven_ was mostly used by Perceptor for his duties on the Science Council. So it was not a front-line combat vessel. He rocketed forward to plant both feet in Perceptor's face, sending him sprawling across the port landing pod of the _Archangel_ as a a huge, local guardian appeared. Guess that was his next target.

"Perceptor!?" Kira shouted out, swinging the huge, anti-ship sword at the mis-match looking Transformer who was far, far faster than anyone had a right to be.

The bounty-hunter smirked. Who ever this guy was, he was a rookie in real skills, even if he was fast. Lockdown then quickly scaled the back of Strike. Kira was worried, as the Phaseshift made it so he couldn't be physically damaged easily, he had no idea what Lockdown had put on him. Lockdown attached what looked like smoke bombs to several points on the Strike.

A gas was emitted but it started eating through the metal of the suit and Lockdown smiled a death-rictus smile. The bounty hunter pulled out a blaster and fired into the holes he made into the Strike. Kira tried his best to slam Lockdown into the side of Artemis's dock and flatten the mercenary.

Lockdown leaped off the Strike and onto the inside walls of the hanger bay. Lockdown saw Skysickle and looked amused at the Minicon attempting to stand up to him.

Until it transformed into a gun mode and blasted him in the chest. The bounty hunter was knocked back and wondered where in the deepest pits of the inferno Drift was. Lockdown then dodged a very crude Metallikato kick from Whirl. Whirl then extending a knife from his left hand and stabbing the chest with it, catching Lockdown off guard.

"Not very Autobot-like of you," Lockdown groaned.

"I'm a Wrecker glitchhead," Whirl said "You don't slag with one of us."

"No, but you guys sure die easily," Lockdown said as he smacked Whirl in the face with his hook arm.

Whirl head-butted right back, knocking Lockdown down to the armored hull of the _Archangel_. "Wreck and Rule," Whirl said in a calm tone before pulling out the knife and hitting Lockdown with an axe kick. This one was for all the Wreckers this damned Transformer had given over to the Decepticons.

Whirl then transformed and started strafing Lockdown. While the bounty hunter was busy with the Wrecker Hot Shot transformed and tried to build up as much speed as he could. At the last moment he transformed to robot mode and hit Lockdown with a flying punch. Whirl transformed back to robot mode and blasted Lockdown.

"Enough playing around," Lockdown snarled as he sprayed Whirl in the face with quick hardening cement from a port on his arm and slammed the Wrecker face first into the floor. He repeatedly kicked the blinded Autobot in the chest to make sure he stayed down. He then used more quick drying cement to attach Whirl to the ground.

Downshift fired on the bounty hunter to give Hot Shot cover fire. Lockdown wasn't impressed and charged at Downshift. Perceptor fired a laser blast that hit Lockdown in the kneecap. Lockdown looked at the sparking wound and sized up the amount of money these Autobots were worth with Drift missing.

The bounty hunter then tossed a small bomb against the wall of the massive, internal landing bay of Artemis. The gas that came out of appeared to do nothing until Lockdown transformed into his muscle car-mode, accelerating fast. Lockdown flew off the end of the Archangel and shattered the wall when he hit. Artemis started to shake worse as the _Death's Head_ kept firing on it. The diecast constructed starship took the pounding that the Earth Alliance ships were unleashing on it and kept on fighting.

"Slagger," Whirl said as Grip-lock, Skysickle and Thunderstrike picked away at the cement.

"Why didn't we grab those guardian bodies?" Thunderstrike asked, getting an agreeing groan from both of the other minicons. "We're idiots, I guess."

"Not that it did Kira any good against Lockdown." Swerve noted.

"It is time for us to flee with this vessel," Perceptor said as objects started flying out of the hole. "Admiral Garcia, launch the _Archangel_ while dispersing the anti-beam cannisters."

And the bridge of the Archangel, Garcia frowned his position down in CiC. "How are we going to stand up to that ship?"

"We shall attempt to lose him in the debris field. That ship's sensors has a weakness in tracking power in a confused location. Normally it does not impede his hunting individual ships, but we shall use its single-minded acuity against him," the true leader of this Autobot band snapped out quickly while firing his blaster. "All Autobots and mobilesuits, retreat to the _Archangel_ before Lockdown returns with more exotic weapons."

"All hands, prepare to launch! Signal the _Dzielny_ and the _Neustraszony_ to follow in our lead," Murrue ordered. She went from being a lieutenant to lieutenant commander and the admiral's fleet captain in just a few days. "Launch anti-beam cannisters!"

The Archangel-class carrier and two Drake-class escorts headed to the opposite exit from where the _Death's Head_ was firing its far heavier energy weapons at the defense platforms of Artemis.

"This is Moebius Omega. All mobilesuits, form up in wings and flank speed while we prepare to interdict that ship," Lt. Commander Mu La Flaga called out. He got a flurry of responses from the standard Moebius mobilesuits.

He hit the controls and unlocked his upgraded remotes. They now worked with a quantum connection and were powered by energy-transmission from the main body, which had been converted to work with Energon and with far higher thrust and power. Mu was not totally sure, but with the beam weapons that he had managed to also get installed, any GINN that tried to attack him was in for a world of pain.

Lockdown flew through space to the _Death's Head_, heading into the ship and to its one-man bridge. "I'll retreat for now. If I can't find any Drift, I'll have to take their heads to the local Decepticons to make some money."

The massive and ominous red ship powered up its two, red energy sails and moved with a speed that the defending fleet could not match. With a frown, he saw the Autobot ship head into the deeper debris field. "Slag, that was actually pretty smart. Perceptor is more cunning than I thought an emotionless cripple could be."

* * *

In the Mirtonian constellation the star ship _Axalon_ waited over a lush jungle world. On board Thunderclash tapped his fingers on armrest of his chair. The captain of the Elite Guard wondered where Perceptor and the Steelhaven were. It wasn't like them to be late. Even though the Wreckers and Elite Guard tended to grind each other's gears a bit every time they met, Thunderclash doubted that Perceptor would take his sweet time on Whirl's account.

"Maybe they got caught in traffic," Landshark joked with a wide smile.

"Right," Flak deadpanned.

"Perceptor doesn't get lost," Thunderclash stated in a hard tone. "At least since he stopped letting Swerve pilot the ship."

"Rumor is he's transported too many chemicals and its burned out his cerebro circuits a bit," Ironfist declared in a derisive tone.

"I heard his mind just wanders," Flak said.

"In any case." Magna Stampede said "We needed their help in finding Cannonball now that he managed to get the Commandos to work for him."

"I got their last report." Scattershot stated "Said they were going to build a safehouse on some backwater planet."

"So what is the name of this planet?" Thunderclash asked.

"It's the planet the Junkions use to base their speaking patterns off of," Scattershot explained. "The planet Earth."

"So we going to have to go see what Perceptor got into Clash?" Landshark asked with a grin.

"Yes. And I told you. don't call me Clash!" Thunderclash yelled.


	5. New Songs

On the screen, a thirty year old woman with a professional haircut looked at the screen. "Good evening and welcome to the Washington Nightly News. Our top story of the night is a strange statement from the Eurasian Federation that they are now in negotiation with what may be an extra-solar civilization. They caution that they are investigating these claims while in negotiation with these people for, and I quote, 'Interesting technology and knowledge beyond our solar system.' Zebadiah, what do you make of this?" the co-anchor said to her compatriot.

"Well, Dara, if this is true and not some disinformation tactic, this is potentially the biggest thing since George Glen announced he was a Coordinator and discovered the space-whale out in the Jupiter's reaches." Zebadiah was an older man in his fifties, but with a shock of only slightly gray hair in a top-notch business suit. "It seems too true, but from what the Eurasian Federation announced, the aliens were caught up the destruction of Heliopolis and are now stranded here in Earth orbit."

"This has brought to the fore Rear Admiral Gerard Garcia, a top commander of the impregnable Artemis station. He's described as more of a politically connected officer, but competent within his command area. He actually states that, through OMNI, that this became possible due to the actions of a young officer that took command of an almost crippled, new ship and managed to defend her ship and her new allies," Dara said as she turned to the left camera. "Our top correspondent at the Pentagon has new information. Over to you, James!"

The scene switched suddenly, naming the reporter as one James Dunnagan in a auditorium. "Thank you, Dara. I'm here as Admiral Motrose of the Atlantic Federation is about to make a public statement. Just to let our watchers know, this is the first time that Motrose has publicly spoken since the onset of hostilities with ZAFT and the PLANTS."

"They claim to be autonomous life forms. Scientists postulate they could be Von Neumann machines or auxons of some kind," Motrose was saying at the podium up front. "Their weapons put them on equal footing with a GINN along with energy-fuel technology that is literally incomparable."

"Admiral any word on what the aliens, if they really do exist, were here to do?"

"Our sources say they were here to gather energy before moving on," Motrose stated "They had no intention of getting involved in our conflict, however ZAFT ended up forcing them to do so."

"Have they said how whatever faster then light drive they have works?"

"No comment so far," the admiral replied.

"Are they going to anal probe us?"

Admiral Montrose simply glared at the reporter. Of all the immature and pathetic things that could be asked about aliens that had to be at the top of the list. The reporter nearly yelped and said, "Question withdrawn."

"Admiral, you said they had no intention of getting involved," another reporter said "What side are they on in this conflict?"

"So far they seem to be on our side," Montrose said. "As ZAFT attacked them with no reason and killed one of their team mates."

Several of the press found it interesting that for a group that had enhanced intelligence as one of the attributes of their group, the Coordinators still made poor decisions. Managing to kill an alien and dragging them into the war against them was a huge one.

"Admiral what are they called?"

"They call themselves Cybertronians," Montrose stated "But they also answer to being called Transformers."

"The question gentlemen is exactly what do we do now?" Lord Djibril said as he turned away from the screen to the many leaders in his conference room. These were the movers and shakers of Blue Cosmos and LOGOS. "We have little reason to doubt Rear Admiral Garcia, given he won't make a claim this bold without hard evidence. He values his career too highly to do otherwise."

"I see this as a chance to find newer and more powerful weapons," Bruno Azrael said in grim delight. "However what those would be require we have more then third-hand information on these machines."

"We need to be careful with our electronic records and messages as who knows how easily they could hack into our systems," Muruta Arzael said authoritatively. "And find out any information they have on intergalactic arms dealers and what sort of materials they take for payment."

'The more things change,' Lord Djibril thought, 'the more they stay the same.'

* * *

"Kira Yamato, while I applaud your eagerness to jump into that fight to aid your friends and allies, the Autobots, you just can not use military equipment. I could be court-martialed. And during a time of war, Kira Yamato, that is a firing squad," Rear Admiral Gerard Garcia said across the table from the young Coordinator in the Captain's Conference room of the Archangel. "In fact, by continuing to allow you access to the Strike, I could be charged with an accessory to espionage. I doubt that they would convict you of spying, of course. But you will probably be locked up until the end of the conflict at the very least."

'Maybe it was a good thing the Minicons left the Astrays on the Archangel,' Kira thought a little nervously. "That isn't what I meant to happen-"

"I understand that, Mr. Yamato. And with the changes you have done, that very advanced mobilesuit that is actually most of the defense capability of this ship _is_ almost useless. Lt. Shardan is unable to pilot it, though he think he will soon be able to pilot the... purloined ASTRAY units." Gerard calculated how hard a hammer to use. Perhaps a bit of the velvet glove. "There is a way to avoid an unpleasant fate for both of us."

Kira actually perked up at that. "Oh?"

Murrue looked on uncomfortably but spoke as they had rehearsed. "You could be commissioned as a volunteer of OMNI, within the Atlantic Federation."

The teen looked confused. "I thought due the circumstances I was pretty much already a part of the crew of the Archangel," Kira said slowly. "I mean even the Minicons weren't sure they could get the Strike to work without customizing it for themselves." He was just some kid who got caught in this war. And he definitely didn't want to get arrested and go to prison.

Garcia managed to hide his surprise at that tidbit. It also made him wonder what exactly Kira had done to the OS of the Strike to make so no one else could use it. And this was on the fly work. Garcia wondered what an OS designed from the ground up by Kira would be like. Still it didn't sound like the offer was being turned down.

"Well we'll just make it official then," Garcia said with a comforting smile. "Welcome to OMNI, Volunteer Ensign Yamato."

Kira just hoped his friends would get out of this while they could. He wanted to protect them, but even the Strike didn't make him the greatest protector. He wanted them to be safe and not on the front lines. Especially if more Decepticons showed up. And if they had him under arrest for the entire war then he won't be to help them or anyone else for that matter. Kira wondered if this was the sort of thing super heroes had to deal with.

Murrue nodded carefully. "Ensign Yamato, you will be given a very abbreviated familiarization boot-camp by Lt. Shardan and Lt. Commander La Flaga. Please listen to them closely."

"Understood." Kira said. He wondered what exactly they would teach him that he didn't already know. He had a feeling it would be regulations and rules instead of things relating to combat. And he remembered what Whirl said about the rules and how it is best to know them so you knew when to break them.

* * *

Patrick Zala looked over the rest of the Supreme Councilors of the PLANTS. "If this news is true, we have just had an unmitigated disaster."

Seigel Clyne, Chairman of the Council, nodded gravely. He was suddenly wishing he had not sent out his only daughter on that Junius-7 remembrance trip. "Indeed. I find it quite strange that Commander Le Creuset categorically denied the possibility that the smaller mobilesuits at Heliopolis were not part of the Earth Alliance. I think that extra-solar aliens qualify as 'not part of the Earth Alliance,' don't you?"

Eileen Canaver quickly stepped in before the two ex-friends started arguing. "At this point, I think we should be considering actions to mitigate the indiscretions of our commander on the spot. I think we should offer to send out a peace envoy to these... Transformers, so that we can discuss the matters of this horrible accident personally."

One of Seigel's other compatriots shouted out, "You are trying to sweep this under the rug! Zala, you used the super-advanced technology as a reason to get ready to press the attack. Now we are suddenly faced with an incredible unknown, not just a small gap in technology that we can redress!"

Ezalia Joule jumped to her feet. "You damned opportunist! This is no time to be attacking one of our greatest heroes!"

Eileen was on her own feet in response. "The same hero, Ezalia, that used anti-fortress weapons inside a civilian colony and killed eight hundred neutral citizens? Grow up! He's a barely restrained attack-dog of Patrick!"

The other woman on the council recoiled as if slapped.

"That is enough," Seigel Clyne shouted out. "We are here to make a decision, not to turn into a kangaroo court and point fingers."

Patrick grimaced. "The Chairman is right. We should immediately send out a high ranking diplomat under a flag of truce to where ever these Transformers are. We don't want to find ourselves beset on two sides. They might only need to field a single ship to tip the balance of this war in favor _permanently _to the Naturals!"

"We're all humans, once again. You're mania about Coordinators and Naturals ends here, Zala. There are true alien races out there," Seigel declared. "They might decide that all biologicals need to be eradicated like the Terminators from that very old 2D movie."

"If that was true why would they even bother allying with any faction?" Patrick countered quickly.

Eileen smirked as she sat down. "You are right, they might only attack xenophobic reprobates as self-defense."

"Contact the Junk Guild. Perhaps if we bring them their fallen comrade for whatever they consider proper funeral rites will earn us some brownie points with them," Ezalia said quickly to cut off that argument.

"And if we try to take the remains from the Junk Guild? It is given Orb likely has hired them to scavenge for any other mobile suits and that Transformer," Seigel asked cautiously. "It is a forgone conclusion that Orb has their own mobile suit program of some kind. Do we really want to make this a three front war? Is angering every other faction that exists really in our best interests?"

"If there is even enough of that robot left to be identified," Eileen commented snidely.

Patrick Zala planned on how the Autobot's remains could be 'lost' and end up being studied in a ZAFT lab. The chance to study this technology couldn't pass them by. Especially since he knew the naturals were going to do the same. These Transformers and their appearance changed nothing. The war would go on and afterward the Coordinators would spread across the stars.

* * *

"We got another lifepod," Swerve said as he dragged it from the debris belt. "Not sure where this one is from but we can't leave them in space." He looked over at the strange sight of a circular plate kilometers wide with ice and dead trees. That looked like something from a Space Bridge accident.

The pod was brought aboard and out stepped a pink haired girl in a fancy white dress. She had a carefree expression on her face. A pink round robot hovered around her.

Whirl eyed Haro like it was an annoying bug that needed swatted with a sledgehammer.

The girl looked confused and asked, "This isn't a ZAFT ship, is it?"

It would be worrying to the extreme if this girl was a spy as she looked as threatening as a lamb. While looks could be deceiving, this girl had to be one of the best actresses in the Solar System to pull off being this innocent. If it was an act. Whirl had a feeling in his spark that girl wore her emotions on her sleeve.

"Nope, this the Archangel," Kira explained with an almost dumbfounded expression. "An Earth Alliance ship."

"Oh," Lacus said as she looked around. So many odd robots. "Thank you for rescuing me and Mr. Haro!" She grabbed the little round ball and smiled very sweetly.

"We do not! We do not!" it blatted out.

Downshift felt the urge to shoot it with his blaster. Or test out the missile launchers he had gotten as part of his half truck alt mode. He could imagine a pink pile of scorched metal. Whirl on the other hand just wanted to step on it and crush it.

"Is that supposed to be a joke?" Skysickle asked curiously. "Some parody of AI to amuse humans at parties?"

Perceptor looked as close to being offended as he could possibly as he studied Haro. He was well aware Downshift and Whirl would destroy it if given the chance. It seemed made to annoy all Transformers in earshot. Perhaps a distraction device?

"Maybe we better hold this somewhere else," Hot Shot said while noticing all the hostility in the hanger bay.

"An excellent idea," Perceptor stated.

"Perhaps we should discuss this with the admiral and the captain," Natarle called out. "All right, people. Back to work."

Kira looked relieved that his robot, Birdie, didn't piss off the Autobots. He had this feeling that pink robot better leave the ship soon or that girl will see it vaporized.

Of course, things went downhill when they entered the mess hall and Flay saw Lacus. Flay asked something of her friend and she started glaring at the new girl. The coordinator singer didn't seem to sense the hostility Flay was giving off as she wanted Flay to shake her hand.

"Hello!" the pink-haired girl said with a soft smile.

"You think that I'd shake your hand?!" Flay snarled.

"Well with an attitude like that who would?" Roadhauler commented from his tall view. Flay glared at the red Minicon.

"Attitude! Attitude!" Haro called out.

"I'd pay real money if that thing would shut up," Jolt said with frustration. Something about Haro's voice grinded at his audio receptors. It was nearly as bad as Quarian thrash.

"Say, Lacus how would you like your robot given a free upgrade?" Skysickle asked. "We have a few ways we can improve it." That it would also be the only way besides leaving the Archangel that pink robot would stay in one piece was left unsaid.

"Don't want a lobotomy! No lobotomy!" Haro shouted.

"It's this or the business end of a blaster," Jolt commented with a glare.

"My dear Haro!"

"We'd be giving you more brains, not taking them away!" Roadhauler said quickly. "And maybe throw in a new paint job if Lacus desires it."

"But I like pink," the singer protested softly.

"That's not the problem," Jolt explained. "I mean Hot Shot's girlfriend is pink but no one disrespects her."

"She also knows several martial arts and can shatter someone's arm by hitting the right spot," Roadhauler commented in a careful tone.

"And she dates Hot Shot?" Kira asked. That just did not make much sense. From what he heard about Arcee unless she had a soft spot for lovable goofballs there was no way Hot Shot should have gotten the time of day off her.

"Love is a very mysterious thing," Jolt commented with a grin. "And no, my being attached to Hot Shot doesn't help me understand what Arcee sees him either."

"Didn't she date a Wrecker?" Thunderstick asked.

"Yeah. Springer," Jolt replied "He even got a featured article on Autopedia."

Flay huffed as attention was drawn from her to the Transformers. She settled for glaring at the new Coordinator and Roadhauler. The red minicon shrugged it off easily. He'd been stared by Cons that wanted to harm him and he doubted Flay could physically hurt him.

* * *

The _Axalon_ appeared near Jupiter, following the trail of the _Steel Haven_.

"By the numbers, Autobots. We need to catch up to Perceptor and his group quickly. There's rumors of a powerful band of Decepticons in the quadrant and we'll need all the bodies we can to send them packing," Thunderclash called out from the command chair.

Ironfist just looked up, as if to ask the Primes to defend him from people that wanted to tell him how to do his job. "Your energon pump is going to go spastic, 'clash, if you don't relax."

Thunderclash looked at Landshark with a mock glare. Landshark grinned and said, "Hey not my fault you got a catchy nickname."

"I'm reading a third ion trail," Scattorshot said "Looks like the _Death's Head _has been here already."

"Drift..." Thunderclash muttered.

"What did that guy do to get such a high bounty anyway?" Stockade asked.

"That's classified, Stockade," Scattorshot said.

The massive, blocky ship rumbled around Jupiter, headed along a faint trail towards Earth.

"Man, these guys are pretty messy. They've been in space how many thousands of years?" Flak asked as he took in the sensor readings of the debris belt.

"About two vorns, if I recall correctly," Thunderclash said, much to the shock of everyone else.

"Primus," Magna Stampede muttered.

"A Decepticon battleship could probably be hidden in all that slag," Stockade commented "And we'd never know until they shot at us."

"Thanks for that cheery thought," Scattorshot commented with sarcasm dripping off his voice.

"Stay sharp then," Thunderclash said.

"And the trail for Perceptor and his group are in the middle of that mess," Flak said.

Unknown to the Elite Guard, the Decepticon Scourge had been tracking their every move. And now it was time for action, as _he_ should be arriving right about now. The hyperspace beacon was going to have _it_ drop right where they wanted it.

That was when a massive, cruel looking ship appeared out of hyperspace. It was Galvatron's battleship, _The Revenge_. The two engines on the curved pylons roared to life, even as the main engine on the spike-shaped main body thrummed with unimaginable power. The instant it appeared, _The Revenge_ opened fire on the Axalon with a barrage of torpedoes.

The _Axalon_ rocked and Stockade barely managed to scream out, "We're all going to die."

An elevator lifted up a figure that almost seemed to be painted in Imperial Purple and who's head almost looked crown-like. The menacing Decepticon transformed into futuristic cannon, angling up on bipod legs. Husbanded Energon was unleashed deep within him, releasing terrifying and barely controlled energies.

The bridge of the _Axalon_ was hit dead on with the stream of antimatter particles, instantly killing the ships controls.

Galvatron transformed back to his robotic form and started laughing maniacally. Off in the distance, behind the exploding ship, twinkled strange (to him) spinning space structures that looked like toy hour-glasses.

While Galvatron examined the space stations, a damaged jet flew out of the explosion and did a quick transwarp jump before his ship could attack. "Fools! You let one of them escape!"

Inside _The Revenge_, The Sweeps all winced at that. No one had the guts to back-talk to him that he had failed to attack either.

"Good job, guys! We still got most of them. It won't be long until this sector of space is cleared of Autobots and Wreckers in no time," Scourge called out.

"The Elite Guard," Leozack said sounding amused. "What a pathetic joke."

Gaihawk looked at the energy trails and noticed the _Death's Head_ was in the system.

"I wonder if we left enough scraps for Lockdown," Gaihawk said in a disdainful tone.

"If we haven't then he will have to discuss it with Galvatron," Cyclonus said behind Gaihawk. "And then we can raid his trophy collection given he will no longer need it."

The Sweeps chuckled at that mental image.

"And here I thought you liked Lockdown," Scourge replied in a snide tone.

"Lord Galvatron finds him useful and as long as he serves a purpose, I will put with him and habits," Cyclonus said in a hard tone. "The instant he needs to be destroyed, I would gladly pull the trigger."

"How spark warming," Hellbat commented.

"Interesting," Gaihawk noted aloud. "The traitor Deadbolt is in this system."

"Well that answers why Lockdown is here," Leozack said. "Another sword for his collection."

* * *

"Admiral Garcia? The... guest from that destroyed ship is here to see you," a petty officer called out at the doorway.

"Send her in." Garcia said. The admiral found it comical that the Coordinator singer didn't bother Autobots in the least. Her little robot however seemed to annoy the hell out of them. He also found it amusing he had the daughter of the head of PLANTs in his grasp. Though had to keep everything on the up and up for the Autobots. The fact ZAFT needed their mobile suits and now the Earth Alliance had the Autobots for technological aid showed who had the upper hand in the Mobile Suit race.

Lacus entered the Captain's Conference room with Haro flying beside her. Yet the little robot seemed a bit different to Garcia. It hovered a bit closer to Lacus and was between him and her. Haro's optics glowed bright yellow for a moment.

"What is it you wish to discuss Ms. Clyne?"

"I came out here to see about officiating over the Juninus-7 remembrance," Lacus said softly.

Gracia pondered if that would be a good idea. On one hand, it would made it even harder for Lockdown to track them. That had to be balanced with the official stance that the Earth Alliance had that the force used here was justified, which anyone with a lick of sense knew was totally untrue. Damn North Atlantic fanatics. Frankly they were going to cause the biggest problems with the alliance with the Autobots.

Especially if half of what the Autobots mentioned of their leader Optimus Prime were true. "The crew might have an odd hour or two tomorrow that will be left open for recreational pursuits. Unofficially, Ms. Clyne, I wish you the best, but that is the most I can do while we loiter in the area." His tone was quite bland.

"That's all I can ask for," Lacus said with a soft smile.

* * *

"Primus," Grip-Lock whispered when he saw the clump of debris that was once Juninus-7. There were all gathered at the end of the port landing bay that had been sealed with a clear emergency dome.

"Yeah, like when Straxus blew up the Amu-Ro Array over Prysmos," Jolt said softly.

"Didn't someone turn him into a head in a jar over that?" Thunderstick asked.

"I think so." While permanently killing Transformers happened, Autobot punishment tended to be just imprisonment. Being 'jarred' was the most extreme form. Most were stored on the Autobot Asteroid Prison Complex or on Garrus-Nine.

Still it was far more merciful then Decepticon punishment which tended to be smelting down for raw materials.

While further way from the Minicons, the rest of the Autobots viewed the shattered ruins of Juninus-7. The sight of it disturbed them and it was made worse when they found out who had destroyed the colony.

"And we're working with the people that did this," Swerve said in cybertronian and felt extremely dirty.

"Both sides seem to like blowing up space colonies," Whirl noted in a bland tone. "The PLANTS retaliated by using some form of Neutron Jammer (which Perceptor is really interested in) and then started blowing up colonies under the control of their enemies."

"There's a reason we try to stay out of local conflicts, gentlebots," Downshift explained in a hard tone. "And this shades of gray slag is part of it."

"Not like we're perfect," Hot Shot commented. There were plenty of destroyed cities and even planets thanks to the Cybertronian Civil War. Many races across the galaxy avoided the Transformers in fear and the Autobots understood why. This was why they tried to gather their energy covertly and leave before being discovered by the local lifeforms.

"Thank you all for taking the time to give a moment for the fallen of this war," Lacus called out in a clear voice that somehow also let everyone know of her sorrow. "This war has caused so much pain and suffering. But I know in my heart that they would want us to look past this terrible act to reconcile with our fellow humans. Because today, humanity has met valiant sentients from beyond our solar system that have greeted us in peace."

The Autobots were blinking in surprise. They had _not_ expected to hear such heartfelt feelings that inspired them from a human. And one that was not even a war-leader of the likes of Optimus Prime.

"If you have a minute, please let me sing this song for you," the young girl asked.

_"In this quiet night, I'm waiting for you _

_During that time, your smile has faded away _

_Now that a little time has passed, _

_Fond memories start to resurface..." _the Coordinator sang as she reached out in sorrow to the beings around her. The accompanying music in the background played through the tinny speakers.

Even Flay, standing next to Sai, was moved by her speech and then song. She felt more than a bit embarrassed by her earlier behavior in the lounge as tears gathered in her eyes. Lacus was _not_ a space monster, nor was Kira. While what she heard about Lockdown from the Autobots made him sound ghoulish. Flay was sure there were Coordinators to be afraid of; it just seemed not all of them were bad.

The Transformers felt the sorrow that was deep inside their spark, reverbrating and growing stronger until it seemed it would over-load.

Out in space, Lt. Commander Mu La Flaga led a pair of mobilearmors in a flyover of the ruin in his Moebius Omega. Explosive bolts released nets that scattered little hand-made origami birds that the civilians (and off-duty soldiers) for this occasion. The right wingman broke off for the traditional 'missing flyer' position as they launched green flares.

The light floaded the area, giving it a strange, ethereal glow under the green brilliance.

"...s_ince I will embrace that coldness. _

_Even though we're apart now, _

_We will definitely be back together._

_In the Quiet of the Night,_" the young singer finished.

"Till all are one," Haro said surprising everyone, its voice sounding surprisingly sad.

"Till all are one," the Autobots chanted.

Then suddenly there was a rip in space and heavily damaged Mobilearmor flew out. It was leaking fuel and an icy trail of lubricant. The top half of it was blue, with the lower half of it gray and orange. The most sharp eyed among the group could see it had Autobot symbol that appeared to have a pair of red V shaped wings under it.

The other Autobots looked at Whirl for a moment like he was going to say something disparaging about the Elite Guard but Whirl was already running for the other launch bay. Even Whirl knew that now was not the time to indulge in the Wreckers and Elite Guard spat.

On the bridge, the captain was snapping out orders. "Signal that Transformer. Someone get me Hot Shot on line. I want to know if they are friendly or not!" Murrue gripped the arm rests that had jolted her during that fly-over gingerly. It didn't seem like anything else was going to happen.

"Signal from Hot Shot, the new contact appears to be two friendly Autobots that are damaged," the communications officer called out.

"Open the port landing bay, prepare to receive... wounded," she called out. She then wondered if the pair of Transformers had any minicons on them.

Chief Engineer Murdoch Kojiro looked at the wreck that the two Autobots where. It also surprised him they were able to combine like something out of an old giant robot cartoon.

They split apart, then transformed back to two robots. "Slag that hurt," the mostly orange robot said.

"Ah, shut up, Jetfire. We're still alive, which is better than the rest of the Elite Guard," the blue and silver Autobot replied angrily. "Man, they were totally brutal and on top of us."

"What happened?" Perceptor demanded in a loud monotone.

That managed to get them to stand at attention (and knock of Chief Murdoch) and salute. "It was Galvatron and _The Revenge_, sir!" Jetfire replied quickly.

"Oh, solar-slagging spark-killers," Whirl said with very intense emotion. "We in deep scrap now."

Lt. Natarle Badguriel looked shocked at that. If she was interpreting that swearing correctly, this was the most panic and terror the Autobot had ever shown. "Who is Galvatron and Revenge?"

"Galvatron is the commander in chief of the Decepticons. _The Revenge_ is not a who, it is his battleship," Hotshot said in a quiet panic.

"And we're a bit short anyone that can fight Galvatron one on one," Swerve said "Or a Guardian like Omega Sentinel."

"Didn't he slaughter an entire group of Wreckers once?" Jetstorm asked in surprise.

"Yes," Whirl said in the barest of whispers and looking at his feet. His optics suddenly flared. "And if I could, I'd send Galvatron to the Acid Wastes in small parts," he suddenly snarled.

"Well, we could have taken him if he hadn't ambushed us!" the new, blue and white Autobot exclaimed. "We're really strong as Safeguard!"

"Autobots. Prepare for emergency upgrade assistance to Archangel and Mobilesuits. All ASTRAY and Gundam units will be completely upgraded within 100 Breems. Lt. Badguriel, inform Admiral Garcia of the nature of our new foes and that we should prepare for battle as soon as possible," Perceptor suddenly ordered in a tone that really did brook no arguments.

With that, he immediately set off while dragging the twin Autobots behind him.

"Guess repairing us is a priority," Jetfire said in shock.

* * *

Author's Notes: As a quick aside, this story originally grew out of a bit of a misconception between myself and Fanboyinimus. He had thought I had mentioned Transformers Universe (double-correction, dang it), when I had understood Transformers Animated. We're _mostly_ going on with Transformers Animated, but with some G1 (because sometimes the classics really are the best.) So this story is definitely growing organically and not exactly in the direction we either originally envisioned.


	6. Lies and Death

The Archangel and its consorts rumbled through space as silently as possible, every stealth system possible active. Other then the one Mirage had, given the power requirements that system needed for objects the size of Earth starships could power Omega Supreme for a week. And the fact Perceptor couldn't build the power rectifier needed for such a system out of Earth parts.

Captain Conrad Hauser of the _Dzielny_ really didn't like their chances if this 'Galvatron' was as powerful as they said he was. Even that really weird 'Whirl' unit he had to deal with once likely would be ground to bits. But they could not make it to the 8th Fleet or the Moon. And Earth seemed like a better choice at this point.

On the Archangel, Swerve asked with a weird expression on his chrome plated face, "There's a New Jersey on Earth? Weird."

"Why would that be weird?" Kira asked as he helped with the maintenance of the Gundam Strike. It was now fully converted over to Energon instead of the batteries it had used.

"I was based in New Jersey on Ganzvort at one point," Swerve explained as he fine-tuned his blaster. "We actually have an Autobot City on that world."

"You guys really aren't that creative at naming things are you?" Kira joked.

"They usually end up piles of scrap," Whirl said with a distant look. "Like the colony world of Combatron."

"You mean Apocalypse Planet?" Roadhauler said. Kira winced as that told him what happened to Combatron.

"It used to be a nice place," Whirl explained. "Before Obsidian and the Combatibots went traitor and let the Decepticons past the early warning systems. I'll kill those tri-cursed glitchhead slaggers."

"They say Obsidian did it for love, given his lifemate before the war was Strika," Swerve explained in a slightly sad tone.

"I don't give a slag," Whirl snarled. He'd lost a lot of friends when Combatron was invaded and actually thought Blast Off was one of his friends before that happened.

"You also never had a girlfriend let alone a lifemate," Downshift commented in a frosty tone.

"And you do?" Whirl retorted in constrained anger.

Downshift got into Whirl's face and nearly shouted, "Yes, I do. Flare Up and I have been bonded for a long time now."

"Why didn't you tell us you had a lifemate?" Swerve asked in pure, gobsmacked surprise.

"You never asked." Downshift replied as if it were that simple.

"Lifemate? Is that something like being married?" Kira asked carefully. "But I thought you said new Transformers were created from some Matrix."

"Close enough," Hot Shot said while ignoring the question about new Transformer creation. Humans were way too interested in things like that. "And I've met Flare Up. She's really driven and most bots think she's a sparkless hard-reactor linkage that likes to blow up stuff. She honestly does care."

"I'm going to power up the Strike now," the young Coordinator called out. He went through the early stages as the mobilesuit thrummed to life with energon. The energy gauge now had measurements in weeks and months, getting a whistle out of Kira. Now if they only had enough energon to charge it for more than six hours.

It also got Kira wondering if they were going to be putting in toilets on mobile suits and mobile armors when Energon became the standard energy source. True he had a system like that in his flight suit but it was frankly uncomfortable at best.

An interesting part of the Strike's upgrade was that it had the ports added to take Orb weapons. Kira wasn't sure what weapons Orb had beyond what the Astrays had but one never knew when that would come in handy. Kira checked the Electrosaber that was an upgrade of his antiship sword.

An electric field surrounded the blade and Kira wondered why it felt so right for the Red Astray to have a sword just like it. Especially since it didn't have a striker pack. The sword was put in a sheath attached to the back of the Astray.

Kira then checked the Stress Fraction cannon they managed to build for him. It wasn't as good at shattering things as the martial art Arcee and other Transformers used but it definitely was something the Decepticons wouldn't like being shot with. The look the Admiral had when he saw the weapon tested kind of scared Kira.

That was when Kuzzey hopped up in distance eating low-G hops. "Did you hear? It's a relief force from the 8th Fleet."

"What? We are meeting up with more Earth Alliance ships?" Kira called out.

"And Flay's father is on the _Bernard_."

"Is that a good idea?" Kira asked worriedly. "I mean I doubt any ship in this solar system could survive being shot at by Galvatron. Or even Lockdown's ship."

"I don't think they're even aware of the Decepticons or Lockdown," Kuzzey said.

Kira brushed aside his feelings for Flay for a moment. There was no way she'd like him and frankly she was with Sai. There was more chance in Jolt stopping teaching children Cybertronian swear words then Flay going out with him.

Which made Kira wonder what a reactor linkage was and what that translated to on the human body.

He then shook his head and checked the laser machine guns the Autobots added to the head of the Strike. It was something Starsaber had and Kira was surprised they were able to fit them into the Strike's head. What worried Kira was the Autobots saying if their scientist Wheeljack was here they'd have been able to arm the Strike with even more stuff. If it didn't explode on the first test.

Kira wondered if he should feel sorry for anyone who got Wheeljack to upgrade their equipment.

The next item Kira tested was the black beam pistol he had been given. How a beam of darkness had a corrosive effect on whatever it hit made no sense to Kira, yet that's what it did and it worked.

"Think this will be enough?" Kuzzey asked.

"I honestly don't think anything they have would be enough," Kira admitted slowly. "Galvatron blew up a front line cruiser for an elite Autobot unit." Kira just hoped no one asked him to reassure them, because right now he was pretty scared of Galvatron. Yet he knew his friends like Kuzzey were depending on him.

"Actually he probably just blew up the bridge," Jolt said brightly. The orange minicon hovered in helicopter mode back and forth.

"That really doesn't reassure me," Kira muttered.

"It wasn't meant to."

"I think I'm starting to get why you guys didn't want to stick around," Kira said in consideration.

* * *

Athrun floated towards the bridge of the Nazca-class cruiser the _Vesalius_. "Commander."

Commander Rau Le Creuset looked up from the tactical table. "Athrun. It appears that we have detected a small fleet of Earth Alliance ships in the area."

Captain Ades nodded. "It's a Nelson-class and two Drake-class escorts."

"So I think we will have to interpret our orders liberally to make sure that these Naturals die before this so-called cease fire goes into effect." Rau curled his lips in a pretty snarl under his face-mask. "The Supreme Council actually believes the ranting of that poseur of Artemis."

"That's very... creative of you, sir."

"Much more creative than a nuclear warhead to Junius-7's super-structure, pilot. This is obviously nothing more than a ploy by the Earth Alliance headquarters to give them enough time to build up their mass production mobilesuits. And if they do that, Athrun Zala, the PLANTS are finished. Their fleets still out-number ours by at two to one odds with a much larger base infrastructure." Rau looked at the captain and his red-jacketed pilot. "And that means we are all dead men walking."

"I refuse to believe that, sir." Athrun tightened his control over his feelings.

"Very good. Prepare to lead a sortie in the Aegis against this fleet. We don't have a cease fire yet and if they never get a report out through the N-Jammer field, they will just be one more casualty in this war."

Athrun had a bad feeling about this. Still orders were orders no matter how much of a mistake he thought they were. And the chances of an alien race that just 'happened' to have dropped in during that attack? The odds were beyond astronomical.

He quickly moved to his Aegis as it was prepared for combat. His wing men on this attack would be two GINNs, leaving Rau's CeGUE and two more GINNs as backup.

The linear accelerator was ramped out, the drone of the launch sequence a normal experience for him now. The gunmetal gray of the Aegis faded away as the phaseshift activated.

Alerts were blaring on the _Bernard's_ bridge. "It's a ZAFT attack."

Vice Minister George Allster looked up in shock at the declaration. "I thought we were under a cease fire?"

"Five minutes to contact!" a petty officer at the tactical display called out.

The captain of the _Bernard_ shook his head. "Not for another two hours. Can we get a message out?"

"Negative. N-Jammer field is fully engaged," another petty officer at communications called out.

"Launching all Moebius mobilearmors to defend the fleet," another voice called out.

"Do you think Admiral Garcia will come to our aid?" Allster asked worriedly. "We're only thirty minutes out."

"Thirty minutes is forever in battle, Vice Minister. And he's got the alien diplomats on board." The captain made his choice. "We're on our own."

Athrun drew first blood, blowing up a rusty-red colored Moebius mobilearmor.

"Status change!" the sensor operator in the Archangel's CiC called. "We are detecting a battle at the location of the relief fleet! One Nazca-class and multiple mobilesuits."

"Damn them," Murrue swore. She suddenly settled her hands on the arm rest, idly noting a tingle from her grips. "Signal the fleet, _Archangel_ will move at full thrust to assist the relief fleet." There were ways to jump rank at times. "Inform the admiral that we are moving into a battle and let him now we are engaging."

The _Archangel_ rumbled to full life, accelerating faster than ever before. In fact, twenty percent faster than it should have been possible, even as alarms called its warriors to battle. Energy that looked like lightning crackled across its outer surface, invisible to its soldiers inside.

* * *

Athrun was busy avoiding being shot. Suddenly, a weird mobile armor that was blue and white on the top, while the bottom was orange, strafed by at high speeds. The elite, red-jacket dodged an energy blast that would have destroyed the sensors in his mobile suit's head.

He was then shocked when the mobile armor split into two and blasted the arms off a GINN that had gotten too close to the _Bernard_. The response time from the Earth Alliance taskforce had been at least ten minutes faster than expected.

Rau grimaced on the bridge of the _Vesalius_ and wondered where the Earth Alliance was getting all these new toys. The new mobile armor was obviously from the same mind as those miniature mobilesuits. If he didn't know how Zala and the other Coordinators of his power bloc were so close minded, he'd suggest they hire the person.

The last GINN's pilot was locked onto the _Law_, firing his heavy Ion cannon into its engine room. With sputtering fire, it exploded, leaving the _Bernard_ on its own.

Jetfire and Jetstorm transformed, but the pilot of the GINN was an old hand and had suspected they were more of the 'Transformers' and dodged their combined crossfire.

"He moves like Starscream." Jetfire commented as he tried to blow the legs off the GINN. There was a shower of sparks as he managed to graze the hip of the Mobile Suit with an energy blast.

Athrun barely dodged an energy blast from that Orb VTOL. That thing working in outer space was part of why he could believe it was an alien machine. Whirl strafed the Aegis as it flew up at it.

It was then the Gundam Strike appeared and fired a rifle that the ZAFT soldiers had never seen before. It was aimed at the heavy ion cannon of the GINN. The cannon shattered like a sheet of glass being hit by a semi.

"Zala, things are starting to get hot here," the last GINN pilot said.

"Don't worry. We are almost finished," Athrun called out as the Aeigis suddenly switched forms.

The captain of the Bernard only had a moment to shout his defiance before the Aegis's multi-phase cannon cored the massive battleship in one shot.

"Let's retreat now." Athrun's voice was cold. He held no regard for almost any Earth Alliance scum.

"No!" Kira shouted. What use was his power if it could not save anyone?

Jetfire suddenly yelled out, "Everyone, avoid the barrage from below!"

The arriving mobilearmors from Garcia's taskforce were mostly surprised, as they did not see the threat. Kira had been charging at Athrun's Aegis in his Strike, but broke and dodged at the Autobot's warning. Athrun thought it was a feint, so dodged to left.

That was when space filled with purple blaster beams even as missiles slammed into the _Vesalius_. A massive and menacing ship slid out from behind a large chunk of debris only two hundred kilometers away. Mu La Flaga had dodged even before Jetfire had shouted, an ethereal instinct moving him between the deadly beams of energy. Over half of the mobilearmors were destroyed while the rest were heavily damaged almost instantly.

"Excellent," Galvatron called out from his command chair. "Using that debris as camouflage worked perfectly."

"Yes, mighty Galvatron. The Autobots will not be able to escape in their primitive ally's ships," Scourge said with a bloodthirsty grin on his face from one of the many gunnery stations.

"Decepticons!" Whirl shouted in alarm.

Onboard the _Archangel,_ Admiral Garcia was staring death in the face through the viewport. "Retreat!" he shouted in terror.

"It's no use," Murrue countered instantly from her captain's chair. "They can overtake us in a moment. The Revenge is capable of going from Earth to Mars in half an hour. We must fight all out!"

Garcia almost had her dragged from the bridge, his terror was so high. But he realized she was too accurate. An anger suddenly overtook his fear. "All ships, full speed ahead and fire everything you have!"

A flight of missiles as large as the first streaked off towards the Archangel, but it moved almost as if it were alive. CWIS and flack missiles fired out, blunting the Revenge's arsenal much to Galvatron's surprise.

"What sort of ship is that? It's acting more like an Autobot heavy cruiser, not a pathetic piece of junk!" the vile Decepticon leader shouted in anger.

The bridge of the _Vesalius_ was leaking air, over half of the crew dead or dying. "All hands, abandon ship! All hands, abandon ship!" Captain Ades shouted. He looked around frantically, but could not see Rau Le Crueset anywhere.

Down in the main launch bay, Rau was already entering his CGUE. "That ship... it is impossible. The Earth Alliance could not have been telling the truth." Because if it was true... then his plans to destroy humanity were for naught. He had forced aliens fighting a civil war to stay in the Solar System and drag everyone into it. Humanity for all it's flaws, faults and stupidity had enough sense of self preservation to unite against a common foe.

And killer robots with an incredibly powerful warship that killed anything that moved and that was armed with guns that made heavy ion cannons look like pea shooters in terms of power would count as a common foe. And who knew what the robots in it could do.

"Athrun," Kira said calling his former friend "We have to work together now and fight the same enemy."

"How do I know this isn't a trick?" Athrun snapped, yet it sounded hollow even to his ears. There was no way the Earth Alliance would attack their own if they had a warship like that. If they had anything even half as powerful and mobile they'd have blown the PLANTS council to bits in an opening salvo and gone from there. Or even hide such a project from ZAFT.

"Hey, if you want to die ignore him," Whirl snarled at Athrun.

Athrun then got a shock as he looked into the cockpit of the VTOL. There was no one inside of it. Then Athrun felt the need to move aside as a purple, light mobilearmor flew out of the Revenge. Whirl barrel rolled as he flew at Cyclonus.

"Die Autobot," Cyclonus snarled out as he dodged Whirl's laser fire.

The Wrecker at the last moment flew out of the way. Cyclonus was hit by a heavy ion canon blast from the Gold Astray. His right wing was nearly ripped off his body.

Cyclonus's wound sparked with green electrical energy. The spark energy of the second in command of the Decepticons burned as some organic's weapons had hurt him. "Decepticons," Cyclonus commanded, "destroy the Autobots and their allies."

Then a swarm of blue mobilearmors launched from the Revenge and attacked. One of the Sweeps hammered on the Aegis. Athrun swore he saw his life flash before his eyes. Then suddenly an antiship sword cut the Decepticon in half.

"Kira...you saved me?" Athrun exclaimed.

"Do I look like Kira?" Roadhauler grumbled from inside the red mobilesuit.

Athrun was shocked to see the Bandit Red armed with an antistarship sword. And the sword had an electrical field surround it. Then Blue Bandit fired what looked like buckshot out of a blaster at the Decepticons. Given they were in space it didn't do so well.

Kira tossed the Blue Astray his black light pistol. The Blue Astray took it and fired on Cyclonus. Kira could swear Cyclonus was offended by being shot at with a black light pistol. He was then driven from his musings as Scourge threw Jetstorm at the Strike.

The member of the Elite Guard made a loud clang as he hit the Gundam in the chest. Jetstorm looked annoyed and yelled, "Time to merge!"

Jetfire flew up to Jetstorm and the two merged into blue and orange Safeguard. They then sent out a fiery orange energy blast against Scourge and sent him flying.

An unnoticed escape shuttle was spinning erratically as its pilot tried to fight away from the battle. His passenger was gripping the arm-rests of his chair tightly. "Can't you make this thing go faster?" George Allster shouted. At the shake of the head of the pilot, he turned and activated the short range communicator. That should cut through even the N-Jammer at this range. "All Earth Alliance forces, this is a direct order from Vice-Minister Allster to protect this shuttle until it leaves the battlefield-"

The purple beam that slammed home on the shuttle nearly vaporized it.

"What a pathetic and annoying life-form. Decepticons, destroy the Autobots and their allies!" Galvatron shouted, even as he fired his arm cannon at the Strike and the Moebius Omega.

The Moebius Zero suddenly spun and rocketed away, while the Strike barely deflected the single attack with the Aile Striker's shield. "Is that... Galvatron?" he asked in a panic. He had heard far too many stories about the dreaded leader of the Decepticons.

"Still think you can take him?" Whirl sarcastically asked Safeguard.

"No," Safeguard admitted in almost terror.

Galvatron then transformed into cannon mode and pointed his gun at the Archangel. Energy built up as Galvatron channeled full power to his primary weapon. A massive burst of purple energy erupted from the cannon.

Kira felt a pressure condense within his mind, then suddenly burst outwards. Everything seemed so very slow, as he moved the controls of the Strike. "No!" Kira yelled and put his beamsaber into the path of the energy blast in an almost literal blur.

The nearby combatants came to a shocking halt.

"He deflected Galvatron's attack with his beamsaber?" Whirl exclaimed. Was that even- No, that must be possible. He had just seen it.

"Kira..." Athrun gasped.

Galvatron raged. He didn't have enough power left to do another shot like that. He'd burned through his energy levels destroying the Elite Guard ship and his attempt to destroy that organic pile of scrap metal.

"Decepticons...retreat!" Galvatron barked out. The word retreat disgusting every bolt and wire of his being. He vowed that he'd make the Autobots and humans pay for this insult.

Scourge was visibly shocked at the command. These weren't Optimus Prime and his true elites. Or even real Guardian class robots like Omega Supreme. Yet these organic beings and rag tag Autobots somehow turned the tide against them.

The Sweeps laid cover fire for Galvatron and the others to retreat. Athrun opened fire on the Decepticons with his beam rifle.

On the Revenge, Leozack warmed up the primary engines. While doing this he planned how he could turn this to his advantage and if he'd have to gather all his allies together. The blue and white Sky Raider had studied what Starscream had done wrong when came to his plans to take command of the Decepticons.

Unlike Starscream, Leozack knew his allies would watch his back and had a few other tricks up his sleeve.

'Liokaiser should be able to destroy them all,' Leozack thought.

* * *

As the Decepticon warship vanished Athrun realized he had a big problem. His ship had been destroyed and there was no ZAFT ships he could reach through the N-Jammer field. He was not in range of anything except an enemy ship. Not the PLANTS. Not the Moon. Not even the Earth.

And he was sure, "Hey Kira after trying to kill you a few times can I bum a ride off you?" sounded equal parts pathetic and crazy. And in a stolen Earth Alliance mobile suit no less. Athrun then had this feeling the blue VTOL was glaring at him. It was a very unsettling thing to the red jacket. Then it transformed into a robot with blue highlights.

"Hey, you! Unless all the nations of your solar system join forces," Whirl called out. "You're all doomed. So you should surrender to that ship."

"They're killing my people!" Athrun shouted. "I'll never surrender to Earth Alliance scum!"

"And the Decepticons will kill you all no matter what you are!" Whirl yelled back at the coordinator.

"If you two are done," Roadhauler interjected from the red ASTRAY, "we can discuss this like civilized sentient beings on the Archangel."

"You really want to let that guy on the Archangel after what he did?" Thunderstick asked in shock. "He's as trigger-happy as Galvatron."

"So you want him to die from loss of life support, all alone?" Kira snapped.

"No, but you really think he'll last long on the Archangel?" Thunderstick said.

"Prisoners aren't just thrown out the airlock!"

"You clearly have never worked with the Dinobots." Jetstorm stated.

"But you guys don't breathe?" Kira was again confused by the robots words.

"You can still run out of energon." Jetfire said "Which makes it a slow death unless you go into stasis lock and hope you don't collide with some object."

"We can't exactly hold our breath until someone lucks onto us," Athrun noted coldly.

"We can sort out everything on the Archangel," Skysickle said trying to get them back on topic "As much as Athrun here acts like he has the spark of a Decepticon."

Athrun wasn't sure what that meant exactly but he had this feeling he'd just been insulted.

* * *

"Athrun Zala..." Admiral Garcia drawled out. "I see you've been following your father's creed. Attacking an Earth Alliance Fleet on the eve of a ceasefire."

"Yes, that was not exactly the smartest idea of my commander," the young man said very blandly. He was standing in front of the Aegis in the fairly crowded port landing bay of the Archangel.

"Just following orders?" the bald officer replied with a raised eyebrow.

"Considering that if I had not, I'd probably be dead... I guess it could be worse." Athrun's green eyes met the enemy officer's with no hint of fear.

Kira tightened his hands into fists. Mu and Shardin had drilled into his head that you just do not butt into an admiral's conversation.

"Illogical. All of us must work together to defeat Galvatron and the _Revenge_. The situation is still perilous," Perceptor called out in his flat, monotone way. "This ceasefire must be made into a pact to work together."

"Hey, yeah!" Whirl shouted. "Though with Kira in the Strike, we got a chance. You've got some moves, kid. Athrun, too."

"And when a Wrecker says you got some moves that means you're impressive," Swerve commented with a grin. Jetfire gave Swerve a dirty look for a moment.

Mu walked up, tapping Kira on the shoulder. "Kid... you should know, Shardin didn't make it."

Kira felt like he'd been punched. "What?"

"His mobilearmor was one of the units that exploded." Mu had a very grim look on his face.

Kira now felt like someone had kicked him in the face as well. He had considered Shardin to be a true mentor of his. Kira's eyes then widened as he realized he told Flay everything would be fine before they launched.

The only way fine could be used with what happened was it was a fine mess.

"Athrun!" Lacus yelled as she saw the ZAFT pilot.

"Lacus," Athrun said in shock "What are you doing here?"

"We rescued her," Hot Shot said with a shrug. "Its what we do."

"We all unite now or we all hang separately," Haro said in only a slightly annoying way.

"Well can someone explain to me what happened out there?" Athrun asked. When had that Haro changed so much?

"That robot with the massive cannon was the leader of the Decepticons," Kira told his friend carefully. "And I had enough problems fighting a mercenary Transformer with a body part collecting hobby."

"At least it wasn't Bludgeon and the Mayhem Attack Squad that were after the bounty of Drift," Swerve commented with a shiver. Whirl clenched his fist. The Mayhem Attack Squad and Squadron X were the biggest rivals the Wreckers had among the Decepticons.

"More bad news?" Kira asked.

"Very," Perceptor replied.

"Hey how do you know Athrun, anyway?" Hot Shot asked Lacus.

"He's going to be my husband," Lacus replied with a dazzling smile.

"So you going to be the best man at their wedding Kira?" Swerve joked.

"We are paired on our genetic capability," Athrun said calmly. "Though we really aren't fighting it."

"This fits my hypothesis," Perceptor stated in his very impersonal manner. "The Coordinator process is currently flawed and by the fourth generation resulting in infertile and experiencing problems." Though from what he could tell, it should not be that hard to correct.

Garcia wondered how big a blow that would be to PLANTS when that leaked out. Their way of life would be punched in the gut if what Perceptor said was true. The coordinators would become more an oddity then anything else.

"And what does a robot know about DNA?" Athrun snapped.

"Perceptor is usually right about these sort of things," Downshift said "You're just a fad for humanity in the long run."

"I won't believe that," Athrun snarled.

"You psychotic bastard!"

Athrun turned and was slapped extremely hard by Flay. The red jacket rubbed his face. There was a throbbing red face print where Flay's hand had been.

"And you said everything would be all right," Flay shrieked nearly incoherently at Kira.

"Trust me kid everything goes to the Pit when Galvatron shows up," Whirl boomed out loudly to shock her for a second. "I've lost a lot friends and comrades to his laser cannon over the Vorns."

"But my father." Flay sobbed as she broke down, almost mewling as she hugged herself. Kira leaned down to carefully hug her.

"Times like this I think you have the right idea Perceptor," Downshift said quietly to himself. Emotions _hurt_.

"That's the coward's way out, Downshift," Whirl snapped.

"Guys..." Hot Shot interjected as he got between Downshift and Whirl. "Now isn't the time to be doing this."

"I think the humans are staring at us," Jetfire commented in embarrassment.

The Autobots looked and noticed they were the center of attention to nearly everyone. Kira and Flay seemed to be the only ones busy with their own drama to be looking at them.

Jetstorm just sighed. Sometimes he wondered about his fellow Autobots.

"I hope Athrun believes what they say we are," Swerve commented in a dry tone. "Given ZAFT doesn't seem to quite get it yet."

Athrun wondered how everything he trained for and everything he believed in could be completely shattered. They weren't alone in the universe. He rubbed his reddened cheek. Being stuck on the same ship with this Flay Allster was going to be unpleasant.

Still the red jacket was relieved at one thing. When what happened got back to the PLANTs council he'd most likely get a slap on the wrist while Rau would get thrown under the rails. This was the second time he'd created a huge mess for them involving the Transformers.

"So what are where are we headed?" the red-jacket asked.

Thunderstick was tempted to say they were going to Uranus. Though admitted to himself that would be a bit too much. It was even too crass for Grip-Lock.

"Hopefully somewhere I can let PLANTs council know how I feel," Whirl said with a dark timber and his knife extending for the palm of his hand. The serrated knife gleamed in the light of the hanger bay.

People started to back away from the Wrecker. He sounded extremely pissed off and like he was going to use that knife on someone. Jetstorm mused that _this _is why bots thought the Wreckers were a bunch of screw loose maniacs with less common sense then Primus gave an ant-droids.

"They had nothing to do with this attack," Athrun remarked. "That was all Rau's idea."

"Was he the same guy behind the attack that got us stuck here?" Downshift asked politely.

"Yes, he was."

"I think he'd better not run into us again," Swerve commented in an angry tone. "For his sake at least."

Athrun wondered what would become of his surely former commanding officer. He could manage to reach a ship or colony in his mobile suit, unlike the Aegis. That was the one drawback of the Phase system, it was an energy hog.

Then Athrun realized that he probably wasn't going to see the Aegis after they got whatever peace talks that were going to be started. Which made him a bit sad since he liked that Mobile Suit. The Earth Alliance might be scum, but they made powerful Mobilesuits.

And something about Flay Allister felt dangerous to Athrun. He might have had differences of opinion with Kira, but he really hoped his friend kept his distance from that girl.

'Not that I really want to be close to anyone on this ship other then Kira and Lacus.' Athrun mused. The red-jacket then sighed as he knew this was going to be a very uncomfortable trip.

* * *

Fred Lowe was a bit disappointed at the lack of prototype mobile suits. He was hoping maybe they left a green or even a purple Orb MS behind. Or something cool like a Mobile Suit with a Nuclear Bazooka. No such luck. Not even a Claymore Gundam.

"Professor, I'm going to be sorting through cargo group ten. I think there's a thruster assembly there, but I don't recognize some of the items," the impetuous technician called out.

"Fine, fine. Just keep an eye out for any more of this robot. Its construction is just amazing," the incredibly pretty, female genius called out. "We can almost fully reassemble it."

They had his head, parts of his upper torso and limbs. What really surprised Fred was that the robot's white paint job wasn't completely ruined. They had also found a sword with the extra solar machine.

Which the Professor had said was somehow super dense and hard to damage.

Fred looked at the robot's head for a moment and left the room. As the doors closed Drift's optics lit up for a moment.

* * *

CoAuthor's Notes: And I just wanted a universe to blow up with the Transformers. Yet now I think Gundam SEED is pretty good and have to thank Arthur for exposing me to the show. Enjoy the show everyone and remember... a Transformer only dies when their toy is not on the shelves. Unless they're Optimus Prime or Starscream. In that case death isn't the end. Wreck and Rule!


	7. Death Above

"I think I was wrong," Eileen Canaver stated coldly. "Commander Le Creuset isn't a barely restrained attack dog of yours, Patrick. He's a _rabid_ dog that needs to be put down before he manages to kill us all."

"And I believe we found the faction like the Terminators of of those old 2-D movies," Siegel commented but took no satisfaction in being right. What he did take satisfaction in was that his daughter seemed to be in the safest place anyone could be in the Solar System now.

"We can salvage this," Patrick Zala declared in a false, unhurried manner to protect his position. "We will have to remove him from the front lines and placed where the Transformers and the EA can see him being obedient. At least until we need him for the conflict ahead."

"How can we be sure the information Patrick's son had sent us is correct?" one of Seigel's men asked.

"I don't think they'd have any reason to lie," Siegel stated, giving a bit of ground. "And we should inform this Perceptor we have almost solved the DNA issues he spoke of."

"I think we can all say that Murphy's Law has been in effect here," Patrick commented "And the only good news is mobile suits are able to hurt the Transformers. Heavy cannons can hurt even the second in command of the Decepticon forces."

"That still doesn't solve how we can deal with the _Revenge_," Eileen pointed out snidely. "Or Galvatron himself."

"And their calls for an alliance with Orb and the EA."

"Talks of such a thing I am willing to entertain," Siegal firmly said as he stood up. "With the bigots of the Atlantic Treaty scared senseless we can discuss this matter with the more moderate minds of the Eurasian Federation and Orb. And it amusingly fits with the list of astronomically strange things the Transformers are causing."

Patrick and his group were not happy but had to agree Orb and the Eurasian Federation wouldn't be completely unreasonable and the talks would let them get Athrun away from the clutches of the EA.

* * *

"The last thing I think we should be doing is upgrading the Aegis," Downshift complained while shaking his head. "That friend of Kira's hates Naturals as much as Snarl hates everyone."

"Logically we will need all the firepower we can get," Perceptor stated simply. "And with the operating system for the Aegis changed to my specifications, Jolt or Grip-Lock can pilot it if Athrun proves unreliable."

"Always good to have a back up plan," Swerve commented with a cold smile.

Kira wondered if the Autobots realized he was starting to pick up their language. Probably not, from the gist of what he was getting from them right now. "Hey, guys? I'm going to clean up and get some food." That was a bit disturbing what they really thought, but then he really could not blame them considering what they had been subjected to here in this solar system.

"Sure, go ahead, Kira!" Hot Shot replied while waving.

Jolt looked over to Road Handler. "Energon time?"

That set off a stampede of Minicons as they dashed for the engine room of the Archangel where the Energon tap was set up. They were all chanting, "Energon! Energon! Energon!" as they ran off.

Downshift shouted out, "Hey! No gorging! And bring some back for us and to fuel the Gundams!"

Kira exited the Zero-G pilots shower twenty minutes later, nodding to the one of the other Earth Alliance mobilearmor pilots. He headed to the canteen where the rest of the civilians was hanging out. He saw Flay staring out a small window, looking so very sad. He grabbed a desert with his supper. "Flay? How about getting something to eat? Miriallia says you aren't eating. You need to eat something."

Flay spun around so fast that she lifted of the ground for a long moment. She started to open her mouth to snarl, but the small slice of cheesecake he held out caught her attention. "Fine." Taking the plate and fork she sat down.

"I take it Sai is helping out the crew in engineering again?" the Coordinator asked.

"Yes, he's been pretty busy. And I think I said something to upset him." Throwing their engagement away just because her father had been killed had been cruel, she had to admit to the dark places of her psyche.

"Kira!" another female called out. Lacus floated over in little graceful bounds, Athrun trailing her. "Hello, Miss Allster."

Flay only scowled more. She had no idea how Kira could consider that blood thirsty maniac ZAFT officer a friend.

"Miss Allster, I've been directed to personally apologize for the PLANTS and ZAFT for the mistaken attack upon the fleet your father was traveling with. Commander Rau Le Crueset is being reprimanded as we speak," Athrun said formally to the girl.

"That is not going to bring my father back," she snapped out to him.

"No, it will not. A lot of families have been tragically destroyed in this war, including my mother on Junius-7." Athrun let that sink in to all of them. "I- We all need to try to work beyond all of these senseless deaths. If we don't, humanity is heading down a very dark path."

Kira coughed to catch everyone's attention. "We should be meeting up with the Combined First Fleet in Earth's orbit in just ten hours. I understand you are going to be transferred back to a ZAFT ship?" he asked.

"Actually, the PLANTs are looking to make a gesture and assign my team to the _Archangel_. Even the Decepticons might think twice before attacking this ship with all of the Gundams and our ASTRAYs," Athrun said with a gleam in his eyes.

"You managed to get access to those datatraxs of Starsaber and his sword style didn't you?" Kira asked his friend.

"Yes they handed me something they called a Cybernet Space Cube with some files on it," Athrun replied.

"They also show how well we did against Lockdown?"

Athrun nodded. "And unlike you, I know what what to expect out of him in a fight."

Kira wasn't so sure of that.

Then Roadhauler walked up to Flay. His optics were narrowed and he looked disgusted with the young woman.

"Man, what a glitch-head. Got a brain full of bad gears there, girl," the Minicon spat out in disgust.

"Excuse me?" Flay snapped.

"What you did to Sai is disgusting," Roadhauler snarled. "Seriously do you even care about the feelings of others?"

"What do is none of your business Roadbuster," Flay yelled.

"Roadhauler," the red Minicon said to correct her. "Roadbuster is one of the Wreckers. He's one of Whirl's friends actually. "

"Like I care," she sniffled out. She did not need this.

"I believe that is the point of this conversation," Roadhauler remarked.

"Stop that," Kira snapped hitting the table with his fists. "Roadhandler, she's in a very tough place and her father just died. Give her some room."

Sai stood up. "Roadhandler, it's between Flay and I. You don't understand everything going on."

Roadhauler looked at Kira and Sai oddly. The Minicon tried to figure out why Kira was getting in the middle of this. This whole mess honestly didn't involve him at all.

"She was hurting you," Roadhauler commented as he looked at the Natural. The red Transformer gave Flay one last dirty look before walking out of the commissary.

"I don't think she wants anyone close right now, because it hurts too much," Sai said. "And our engagement wasn't our choice. It was mostly her father's."

"Sai, please," Flay begged.

The young man opened his mouth, but then closed it. How could he bring up the fact that Vice Minister Allster had set up the marriage of his daughter so that she was not left on the street nearly broke. "It's more complicated than you know."

Athrun looked at Lacus and was glad they didn't have to deal with that kind of drama. Haro's eyes glowed yellow for a moment.

"Love hurts," the pink robot said sadly.

Roadhandler looked confused as he wandered the halls of the Archangel. He really did not understand the situation and that could mean problems in the future for the Autobots. 'Primus how do humans survive?' Roadhauler thought.

* * *

Admiral Haliburton looked over the three ships as they slotted into the middle of the Eighth Fleet. The three ZAFT ships that lay on the left flank of his fleet reminded him that this was now the First Combined Fleet. "My compliments to Captain Ramius and Admiral Garcia. Charles, ready a side party to go to the _Archangel_."

"Aye, sir."

While on the Archangel certain facts came to light.

"I'm a diplomat for this?" Whirl asked loudly hearing what his group was considered for the upcoming talks.

"We're all diplomats," Downshaft remarked, correcting him.

"They got to be mad to consider us that," Jetstorm stated. "Especially for Whirl."

"I know," Swerve commented with a smirk. "Guess they must have heard he works for a great statesmen."

Jetstorm couldn't hold it in any longer."He has to control himself! HAHAHAHA!"

Whirl responded in a calm and diplomatic fashion. He punched Jetstorm in the face and then held him up by the neck. Jetfire shook his head at his brother's actions.

You never make fun of a Wrecker when you're within shooting or physical combat distance. Most of them really didn't have much of a sense of humor about that.

"Ow! Ow! Quit that!"

"Whirl, put down Jetstorm," Perceptor ordered.

Whirl dropped the member of the Elite Guard with a loud clang that filled the hanger bay.

"Whirl, you can't do that at the talks," Hot Shot said in a firm and commanding tone. "We have to put our best faces forward and be on our best behavior."

"More like he has to be on his best behavior," Swerve remarked.

"I hate you all," Whirl grumbled.

* * *

Lockdown entered the Revenge though a boarding passage. He was clearly aware of the dislike the Decepticons had for him, but it honestly didn't matter to him. Plus he put on a few more of his trophies in case this went south for him. Galvatron paid extremely well, but he wasn't exactly the most trust worthy of employers.

Cyclonus looked at Lockdown with disgust, and his scowl only deepened when the bounty hunter shot him a predatory smile.

"How's the wing Cyclonus? Looks like something nasty nearly blew it off," Lockdown casually commented.

"None of your concern, Lockdown," the Decepticon second in command coldly replied.

"Has to be insulting since they're all a bunch of weaklings," Lockdown said with a sadistic smile. "Even the Wrecker among them isn't that impressive. Not that they ever are."

"I agree, as much I loath to admit it," Scourge remarked as he seemed to appear out of nowhere to Cyclonus. However Lockdown just looked amused.

"Not bad," Lockdown commented. "More natural talent then any refined skill but it still wasn't half bad."

The tracker hoped he could have a chance to join Cyclonus in killing Lockdown when Galvatron finally wanted him offed.

The trio of Transformers then made their way to Galvatron's throne room in silence and without any bloodshed. With surprised Lockdown a bit. He figured Cyclonus and Scourge would make an attempt on his life by now.

In the heart of the Revenge was a throne made for the leader of the Decepticons. The back of the chair was made from Starscream, with a small purple Decepticon cut in half and used for the arm rests.

'So that's what happened to Ratbat,' Lockdown mused.

Galvatron looked at Lockdown with a slight smile. "Greetings Lockdown. I have a job for you."

"So who do you want dead?" Lockdown asked like they were discussing the weather.

"All the Autobots and their allies in this system."

Lockdown's predatory smile was all Galvatron needed to know the bounty hunter was in for this. With the Emperor of Destruction also having sent news of this bounty across space. Every mercenary would come to Earth and destroy the Autobots and humans for the 1 million shanix reward. Well other then the Autobot allied ones like Devcon.

Galvatron made plans in case those bounty hunters showed up. Any bounty hunters that could take out the Autobots and their human allies were to be recruited into the Decepticons or destroyed. The last thing he needed was a powerful neutral Transformer that could stand against him.

* * *

The admirals met at the landing bay where Rear Admiral Garcia had to take the position of junior officer on his own command. Admiral Haliburton saluted, then introduced his XO.

"And this is Lt. Commander Ramius, the captain of this ship," Garcia introduced as protocol dictated.

"Admirals, if I can have you move on. We are expecting a convoy from the ZAFT ships."

Deep down the Admirals had to consider the whole thing strange as the stolen EA mobilesuits flew toward the landing bay. The pilots inside them all had different emotions on what was happening.

'Why the hell are we working with the Naturals?' Dearka Elsman thought. The dusty skinned pilot really didn't think much of them and doubted ZAFT needed cannon folder that badly.

In the Blitz Gundam the pilot was hoping humanity could unite and possibly get along better. His mind was also filled with all kinds of ideas of the sort of species that could exist in the universe. Some humans with bumps on or other things on their foreheads, to more outlandish like gelatinous beings and human shaped plant life forms to transformable robot bodies with organic brains in them.

He wasn't sure if any of those really existed out there, but he wanted to find out.

Yzak Joule was holding back his rage at his orders. Even over a day later, he could not believe he was going to fight at the sides of the Naturals. Or the whole insane reason behind them joining forces. Seriously... extra-solar aliens fighting a civil war across the galaxy? It sounded the plot to a children's cartoon. Or maybe some big budget movie.

The two white mobilesuits were followed by the intimidating black one, landing easily in the docking bays. They followed spacesuited deck crew and some sort of hardsuited group over to the main repair dock.

"Now that is intimidating and cool looking," Dearka called out loudly. In front of them were the other five mobilesuits from Heliopolis. Their own trio of mobilesuits were moved to the last three spots. As soon as they exited their suits they saw an orange helicopter fly towards them.

The helicopter quickly changed shape right in front of their eyes.

"Hi," the orange robot said. "I'm Jolt. So, do any of you still doubt the fact we're real?"

Yzak just smirked. "You could easily just be a Natural trick of the Earth Alliance. Transforming robots are their forte, after all. But we've been ordered to 'play nice' so we'll pretend you are what you say you are."

"And have one of those 'tricks' murder their Vice Minister?" Jolt remarked. "Ask Athrun where he got that hand print on his face sometime."

"That is hard to explain," Dearka admitted. "But easy tricks aren't worth much."

"Guys, these are allies for now per our orders," Nicol replied from the very grim looking Blitz's shoulder.

"And it would be best to remember it," Athrun said as he entered the bay with the several people his age. And several more Autobots, though they only loomed over him by a foot. "That is Grip-Lock," he said while pointing to the sea green and silver minicon.

"These are Roadhandler, Thunderstick, and Skysickle," Kira said as he pointed to the red, gold and blue and red-black minicons. "They are generally the pilots of the ASTRAYs."

"Yeah, and don't you forget it!" Thunderstick shouted in glee.

Jolt and Grip-Lock looked unhappy, but they couldn't argue that the other three minicons had more experience.

"Who the hell are you?" Yzak snapped out at the Earth Alliance pilot.

"I'm Ensign Kira Yamato, designated pilot of the Gundam Strike." He gave them a little shrug at that as he saw Murdoch and his crew start to tear into the maintenance and refit of the new arrivals. Energon pumps for them all, along with other more minor fixes.

"You're the guy that winged Commander Lecrueset?" Dearka asked. "You must be some sort of ace."

"Um, I just happened to be in the cockpit then. I mean, I was just a civilian at that point." Kira took in their looks of disbelief. "It was all an accident."

Yzak and Dearka just looked at him in shock. "You were a civilian then?"

Kira nodded. "I never intended to get in the middle of this war."

"Wait... didn't you mention a Kira as one of your friends Athrun?" Nicol asked.

"Exactly," Athrun said. "This is my friend Kira."

"Why did you join the Earth Alliance?" Yzak demanded.

"Because they would have thrown me in prison after taking the Strike to fight Lockdown without asking otherwise," Kira snapped at him.

"So you say," Yzak remarked.

"How did you work with that glitchhead?' Jolt stage whispered to Athrun.

"Day by day," Athrun commented with a hint of humor.

"Hey, Athrun, how did you get that hand print on your face?" Yzak asked. Athrun glared at Jolt who just smiled and waved in midair.

"Flay happened," Grip-Lock said with a smirk. Flay blushed at that, but it did tear her gaze away from the white and gold ASTRAY. Several of the full sized Autobots had moved over to work on the new suits and were in the process of replacing armored components on the ASTRAYs. With Perceptor studying the Armored Shroud added to one of the mobile suits ZAFT brought with them.

"Are you sure she's a Natural?' Dearka questioned. "She has to have one hell of a hand to leave that deep a bruise."

"She's always been a fire-brand when you got her angry," Sai remarked.

"I'm right here, you know!" she called out.

Thunderstick looked at Kira and Flay blush at that and wondered why blood ran to their faces this time.

"Yeah, she's got a thick hard drive," Roadhauler muttered.

* * *

The first inkling of troubles was when a large mass of junk from the Debris Belt came streaking towards the formation of Earth Alliance and ZAFT ships. Nestled in the middle of the junk, Lockdown's ship was a magnetic lynchpin.

"All ships, maneuver to avoid the attack," Admiral Haliburton called out confidently.

Lockdown just smirked. "Stupid monkeys, you've fallen for my trap." He reversed the polarity of the magnetic grapples holding the mass of junk to his ship, sending them spinning outwards into the enemy formation.

"Status change! The debris is fragmenting!" an operator called out.

Drake class frigates struggled to avoid each other and the fragments that were spinning everywhere. The _Dzielny_ smashed head first in a mass that was twice the size of itself, exploding spectacularly.

Captain Antoni of the _Versa, _a Nazca-class cruise, had his ship blast through the center of another, large fragment only for Lockdown's ship to blast deep wounds into the ship as it passed.

"Galvatron, interdicting their escape route back to their mudball," Lockdown called out. His ship speared a Drake class cruiser with heavy blast beams that was trying to launch its mobilearmors while skirting past him. He was now behind them and lower down in the gravity well, almost skimming the atmosphere.

That was when the _Revenge_ dropped its stealth fields as it fired beams and missiles. The _Versa_ was only saved because a piece of junk took two of the three beams aimed at it. "Damage control, I need full thruster control immediately," the captain of the _Versa _shouted out. The Nazca was dropping out of the fight.

The _Archangel_ was spinning through the battle even as both of its launch bays cycled open. Green beams errupted from its heavy particle cannons, even as its railguns cycled.

"All Gundams reporting ready for battle!" the mobilesuit operator called out.

"Launch them as safely as possible," Murrue called out.

Kira bit his lip as the panel cycled through the launch sequence. "Kira Yamato, launching!" The Aile Strike flushed into space.

Yzak just smirked in his helmet as he sat ready to launch in his mobilesuit. "Joule, launching!" The magnetic accelerator flung the Duel into the void.

"Zala, launching," Athrun called out as the Aegis was launched.

"Elsman, launching," Dearka called out as his own Buster was launched.

"Almafi, launching," Nicol called out as the last Gundam, the Blitz, launched.

Roadhandler just almost-shrugged as much as his mechanoid body allowed. "Roadhandler, ASTRAY Red, launching!"

"Thunderstick, launching spannerit!" the next minicon called out as the ASTRAY Blue launched.

Skysickle nodded inside ASTRAY Gold. "Skysickle launching!"

On the bridge of the _Revenge_, Galvatron frowned. "What do you mean, they are more of the special-class Guardians?"

"Forgive me, Galvatron, but the sensors indicate that there are now eight of the units launching from the white battleship Archangel." Cyclonus did not look happy from the weapon control station.

"Give us the word, mighty Galvatron, and we will show them the power of Liokaiser," Gaihawk boasted.

Leozack glared at his fellow Skyraider for a moment. He wanted to hold that more in reserve instead of offer it at the first sign of real trouble. Still he was glad for one thing, his best friend and most trusted ally Deathcobra could take the place of one member of the group.

"Can Liokaiser handle them, Leozack?" Galvatron asked with a sneer.

"Of course we can," Leozack replied. "We could beat Starsaber and none of those organics are even close to his league."

"Then destroy them!" Galvatron shouted.

As the six Decepticons attacked Team Gundam, Yzak wondered what demented mind came up with some of the weapons the Astrays and Strike had. The red jacket made sure to take good sensor readings because as odd as they were, they were still effective. The silver haired teen then snorted when he saw Jetfire and Jetstorm merge into Safeguard. All that was missing was a five or six robot combiner showing up.

Yzak would learn to be careful what you wish for when the six Decepticons merged into a super robot. The super robot was quite a bit bigger then their mobilesuits and armed with a nasty looking spear. The Duel Gundam barely avoided being skewered. He then fired the energy rifle at the gestalt only to watch the shot _bounce_, much to the amusement of Liokaiser who then jabbed through the rifle and into the groaning of metal of the phase shift enhanced armor.

The red jacket fired his Gundam's head mounted weapons at Liokaiser. The giant seemed to be laughing, until a missile barrage from Buster Gundam and a heavy cannon blast from the Gold Astray got his attention.

There was an elbow to the head by Liokaiser and he then focused his attention on the pair of mobile suits. Which turned out to be a feint as Whirl put full power to his primary weapon and blasted the gestalt in the back. Metal started to melt and the wound sparked.

That was it.

Then Liokaiser let out a howl of complete and utter rage. Even though no one could hear it, they could all feel it in their hearts or sparks. Whirl barely managed to avoid being skewered by the massive spear.

Suddenly the spear disappeared in a spin and Liokaiser held a double barrel blaster. Whirl and La Mu Flaga in his Moebius Zero Omega barely managed to get out of the way of the blast. Several GINNs behind them weren't so lucky and were blown to bits.

More Transformers had joined the battle, with a strange yellow symbol that was neither Autobot or Decepticon. The ragtag ship behind them laid out anemic blasts in comparison to the _Revenge_, but still caused a Laurasia-class frigate and a Bernard class battleship to explode.

"Why isn't it dead from that hit, Whirl?" Mu shouted across the com system. The Moebius Zero Omega launched its gunbarrels, trying to confuse the huge robot.

"Are you kidding me? I'm amazed that I hurt him!" Whirl replied as he ducked around a thousand meter fragment of some colony. It only last a moment before it was pulverized by the combiner.

The _Revenge _had continued to fire on the fleet, only to find that the missiles which were so effective against Autobot ships were not nearly as effective as this united fleet brought their close in weapon-support to effect. The pivoting chainguns on all the ships were shredding the missiles before they could close.

On the _Archangel_, Perceptor made note of the "chainguns of doom" as Hot Shot called them as interceptors. He even recalled an Autobot with similar weapons.

'The trip to the Sol system had been a fruitful one for weapons ideas,' Perceptor mused as he led the less flight-capable Autobots to the armored roof of the _Archangel_.

"Decepticons, focus your attacks upon the special ship. Liokaiser, do not be so weak as to fail against it," Galvatron called out as he continued to command from the _Revenge's_ bridge. The huge, purple battleship shifted and started firing heavy blasters at the _Archangel_.

"Evade ten degree down," Murrue called out as she clenched her fists on her captain's chair. "Gotfrieds... FIRE!" Down below her, she heard Admiral Garcia giving brisk orders to the remaining ships in his task force.

The _Archangel _spat green, particle beams of death back at the _Revenge's_ purple blasters.

On the _Menelos_, Admiral Haliburton's own Agamemnon-class warship, the admiral was coming to his own conclusions. "Chuck, we are caught between a hammer and an anvil. We'll be destroyed between the Decepticon ships."

His XO looked over. "What do you have planned?"

"Tell engineering to prepare the engines for a final push. Get everything we can out of them. Navigation, plot in an intersecting course on the Decepticon ship below us. All hands," Halliburton shouted out, "prepare for impact." He cursed the Agamemmon's design that made it the best ship for suicidal ramming attacks. The front two-thirds of the ship was mostly armor and mobilearmor holds.

Liokaiser roared silently in space as he pointed his double-barrel blaster at the _Archangel_, charging it up to full power. Whirl was not the only one that could bring a heavy blow down upon his enemies.

Kira had been peppering the giant combiner from long range. He could not believe how powerful the Decepticon could be. If Jetstorm and Jetfire had this sort of power as Safeguard they might have been able to live up their boasts.

"_Archangel_, evade!" Perceptor shouted out from the top of the Earth Alliance ships where he and the rest of the Autobots had moved to provide covering fire. But their blasts seemed to do nothing to the combiner.

"No!" Kira shouted even as he felt something burst within his mind.

And something within the Strike responded as energy roared through the Gundam, its nascent spark becoming charged... becoming alive. Lines of energon grew from the center-point of the Strike like patterns of arcane circuitry. It's eyes flashed gold, even as it rocketed towards Liokaiser in a blur.

"Kira?" Athrun called out.

"What is that mode?" Yzak shouted out as he nursed his damaged Duel back into position to launch the micro missile packs on his armored shroud.

The glowing Strike slammed into the larger Liokaiser like a freight train just as he fired at the _Archangel_. The blow staggered the battleship, but failed to breach its armor.

"I won't let you hurt them!" a strangely echoing voice shouted as the Strike pulled out its beam saber.

Liokaiser sneered as he kicked out at the Guardian. So he was shocked when the smaller mobilesuit dodged and then chopped his double-blaster into four pieces.

"Primus does that kid have some super mode he hasn't told us about?" Whirl asked out loud.

"_Menelos _to_ Archangel_, prepare to retreat to Earth. Your primary duty is to retreat from this battlefield and descend to Earth with the prototypes." Admiral Haliburton then shouted out, "Engines to full! Prepare to ram the enemy!"

Murrue heard the words in shock, even as she read the tactical chart. "Lt. Badguiril, prepare to recall all friendly units." No, he couldn't do this. He just could not!

The _Menelos_ rumbled to full power, presenting its wedge-front to Lockdown's crimson ship, even as the Decepticon belatedly realized the threat he represented. He started to bring his engines back up to full power, diverting energy from his weapons.

"Fool! You will kill us both!" the mish-mash Decepticon screamed out. What sort of primitive animals were these humans? His ship was pouring weakened blaster fire into the larger ship, to no avail.

"Admiral!" Murrue said, even as her emotions peaked in a spark that jumped from her finger-tips to her controls.

Lockdown kept firing to try to stop the incoming ship even as he tried to dodge. However the _Menelos_ was taking the blistering fire of the Decepticon warship and kept on coming. Lockdown really desired to have a starship weapon sized glass gun. Or a fracture cannon.

That was his last thought as the _Menelos_ smashed down upon his starship. The explosion was huge, sending most of the fragments deeper into the Earth's atmosphere.

Captain of the _Archangel_, Lt. Commander Murrue Ramius, felt a part of her heart break as her mentor went down with his ship. Pain and loss triggered something deep within her ship. Violet lightning started to crackle across the ship.

"Retreat?" Yzak shouted. "We can win this battle!" His Duel dodged the furious one on one fight between Liokaiser and the glowing Gundam Strike.

"It's orders from the admiral! We are to retreat to the _Archangel_ and withdraw down to Earth," Nicol called out, even as he was pulling his Blitz back from the battle.

"Destroy that ship!" Galvatron shouted. "Send the mercenaries to replace Lockdown!" He would not admit it, but the loss of the bounty-hunter and his powerful warship had surprised him in a horrible way. These humans... they knew how to wage war. And that made it that much more important to kill before they could become allies of the Autobots.

The mercenary Transformers had not been happy at the orders, but followed his directives. Their ship was more than able to move in front of the _Archangel_. And it did not even seem to be readying to ram them.

Liokaiser dragged the Gundam Strike to intercept the _Archangel_. "Now they have to decide what is more important. Saving you... or escaping!" the gestalt Transformer shouted in glee.

"I won't let you hurt them!" the echoing voice said, smashing the beam saber against Liokaiser's polearm.

All of the other Gundams and ASTRAYs were moving back to the Archangel while they concentrated fire power on the mercenary Transformers.

Murrue was sending out orders even as she mentally felt her will pushing up against a wall. Then... a spark leaped to life to help smash through the blockage.

Massive engines started drawing on energon reserves so fast that they would last only minutes. The _Archangel_ seemed to shudder and then started to break apart. But not due to damage...

...but because it was transforming!

The forward launching bays and positron cannons flipped, spun and morphed into bipedal legs even as the whole ship rotated down ninety degrees. Then under carriage wing split to attach to the _Archangel's_ hips. The bridge moved further back even as the main center hull of the body stretched wider up at the main thrusters. The curved under-body and back-wings all rotated around the valiant cannons that had become massive shoulders.

"Archangel Supreme, transformation... complete!" a massive, heavy voice shouted as he finished morphing into a four hundred meter tall, humanoid Transformer.

Aboard the _Revenge_, Galvatron's face showed his utter shock as a Supreme-class Guardian appeared in the battlefield. "Retreat!" he suddenly shouted. He did not have anywhere near the firepower to deal with something like _that!_ The _Revenge_ and his crew instantly jumped to action, thundering away at full speed.

Liokaiser felt utterly dwarfed, something he would have stated as impossible before this day, even as the Strike retreated. "Uh, what the Primes is that!"

That was when Archangel Supreme batted the gestalt combiner with one hand hard enough to break him into his individual Transformers and scatter them all across the battlefield. It then turned its attention to the mercenary ship as a light built up in his chest. Somehow, in all the transformation, the two positron cannons had been moved to his stomach.

Coruscating antimatter energy lashed out to vaporize the ship and killed most of the neutral Transformer mercenaries in one shot.

"Power levels critical, reverting to flight-mode," the massive Transformer stated even as it transformed back, the parts moving back to their individual locations even as the upper atmosphere of the Earth started to flash and spark around him, breaking off smaller panels.

Mu La Flaga looked over the situation, then acted. He sent his Moebius Zero Omega to launch a grapple to help land his space mobilesuit on top of the reverting _Archangel_ even as he shouted out orders. "Everyone, land on top of the Archangel. It's our only hope!"

"This whole situation is nuts! Athrun, what sort of allies did you dig up?" Yzak shouted, even as his Duel landed heavily on the main hull of the _Archangel_. The Blitz and Buster landed right behind him, while the Aegis and the Strike landed further back.

"By the All-Spark," Roadhandler called out in awe, even as he landed his red ASTRAY on the port forward hull. "A new supreme!"

Perceptor had led his team back to a lee from the flames of reentry, his expanded mind calculating the situation fiercely. "There is an unknown catalyst at action here. We must determine this power with all of our resources. With the ability replenish our forces with such entities, we could finally turn the tide of the great war."

"But with Galvatron right here, is that even possible?" Hot Shot demanded of his leader.

"That just means we are in the right place. This is as important as the battle of Iacon on Cybertron!" Whirl said in wonder.

"Activate the ablative heat shielding. Try to gain control of our descent angle," Murrue called out even as she tried to get her panting breath under control. What had that been, everything was foggy in her memories for a few minutes.

"We're not going to be able to hit Alaska at this angle," the pilot called out over his shoulder.

"How bad is it?" she called back.

Natarle looked over the information. "It looks like we will get to test ZAFT's hospitality in Africa, admiral."

Garcia nodded as he rubbed his chin in thought. "Try to splash down in the Mediterranean if possible. Send emergency crews to the lifters. We'll need them to work immediately if we are not water tight."

"And we can always have Lacus or Athrun talk to them," Grip-Lock noted. "In case we need to give them more of a reason to follow the cease fire."

The _Archangel_ continued to descend upon a wave of fire, bringing its war down to Earth.


	8. Meet and Greet

Great Shot wondered why he took this bounty. A million shanix should have to be a warning given even Optimus Prime didn't have that big of a bounty on his head. A new supreme blowing up a ship and stomping Liokaiser wasn't something he wanted to stick around for. And his friend Gaihawk had boasted at how powerful the gestalt was many times.

It made him wonder why he even bothered working with the Decepticons. Though he doubted the Autobots would want his help after this. And the worst thing was he didn't have enough fuel to reach any space ports and he didn't think trying to hotwire a science vessel would go well for him.

Who knows what defenses that the ship had. Of course, all of this would be more useful if he wasn't laying in a crater on a mudball world. This had definitely not been the best day of his life.

Damn organics. And damn himself for even doing this.

"I wonder if Astrotrain is dead or not," Great Shot groaned as he tried to move again, giving off sparks and making a very unhappy straining noise in his joints.

* * *

The _Archangel_ was angling for a descent into the Mediterranean even as the robots and mobilesuits on the top of it held on for dear life or spark.

Hot Shot looked up and shouted, "I think they have it under control."

"Incorrect. This vessel will strike the observed sea in thirty seconds," Perceptor countered.

"What?" the three Minicons in their ASTRAYs screamed out in shock.

"All hands, brace for impact!" came Murrue's strident orders over all radio and com systems.

"Better hope the ship doesn't leak," Swerve grumbled.

Jetfire hoped he won't have to do this again. 'With my luck I'd end up slamming into the planet and they'd need to dig me out,' he mused to himself.

That was when Jetstorm banged his partner's head. "We can fly, lugnut!"

Strike's yellow eyes flashed as his Aile pack ignited, sending the Gundam into the air and off course of the impact zone. Jetstorm and Jetfire combined into their Safeguard flyer form, snagging Perceptor and rocketing into the sky.

Whirl just shook his head. "Kids these days." He let himself be pulled off the top of the _Archangel_ and transformed into his helicopter mode.

Hot Shot looked for hand holds on the spaceship and saw none. "Slag."

Then the _Archangel_ struck the water like a meteor, sending a spray of water for miles as it dove through the water. For over a thousand feet down it sank before finally surfacing like a massive submarine.

The Strike landed on the forward port landing bay. "Energon levels critical. Entering stasis lock."

Downshift looked up at that. "Primus's Spark! You can't got into stasis lock, you slagging guardian. Your spark has to stabilize!" He moved his old gears and ratchets as quickly as possible. Downsift did not have a lot of energy left himself, as he kept avoiding a full tune-up with Perceptor. He pulled out his emergency energon sliver. "Eat this!"

The Strike managed to absorb the energy, though was still very tired. Swerve saw that and scrambled over to help refuel the tired guardian. He started feeding the Gundam energon goodies.

Hot Shot was busy doing his own rescuing. Most of the ASTRAYs and Gundams had fallen off the _Archangel_. Currently he was diving after the red Gundam. From what he vaguely recalled, the organics piloting them could not deal with heavy pressure as easily as Transformers could.

Inside the Aegis, Athrun was shaken awake as his moblesuit was tugged towards the surface.

The Duel and Buster were busy hop-scotching with judicious use of jump-jets towards the _Archangel_. "This sucks," Yzak exclaimed angrily.

"Quit complaining. We're alive, right?" Dearka shot back.

"Well, today has been so weird that if I find out it's a dream I'll stop eating whatever it was before I went to bed," Yzak said as he shook his head.

Roadhandler and Thunderstrike were using their red and blue ASTRAYs to grab the Blitz before it could sink to the bottom of the sea.

"Slagging stupid lugnut shearing sparkless guardian!" Skysickle was shouting as he tried to get his white and gold ASTRAY to move, but it had slammed into one of the _Archangel_'s fins as he was swept overboard.

"Don't worry, we got you," Safeguard called out as he grabbed the last ASTRAY then rocketed over to the _Archangel_.

Crewmen were rushing about helping the pilots out of the damaged Gundam. Kira passed out the moment he was pulled, while Athrun was suffering a concusion. Nicol started throwing up as he was rushed inside.

"What's wrong with that pilot?" Hot Shot asked tiredly.

"We think he got the bends from too many pressure changes. We're going to try and save him, but we don't have a pressure chamber," a medic officer called out.

"Use _Archangel's_ airlocks," Perceptor immediately called out from where he was doing emergency repairs on Strike and Downshift. "You can over ride the controls to simulate most pressures your organics can survive."

"Great idea! Thanks!" the medic called out even as he ran after Nicol and his medical team.

"Suddenly I don't feel so bad about what happened to us," Yzak admitted to Dearka. He hissed in pain as a cut on his collar bone was bandaged.

The Strike suddenly stood up. "I feel de-energized, but I think I will make it."

Hot Shot was staring at the empty pilot's entrance. "So, um, who are you?"

The larger robot seemed to blink. "I do not know."

Perceptor frowned at that. Mostly newly born Transformers at least had a name.

* * *

"Ship is holding buoyancy by running the air compressors on high, captain!" the damage control officer called out. "Section chiefs are fixing smaller leaks as quickly as they can."

"Very well. What is our position?" she asked the pilot, PO Neuman.

"We're just off Malta. We can probably make Gibralter fairly easily if we can get basic thrusters going. But we are very low in energy for now." That would change as the reactor continued to pump energy into the systems.

The bridge was quite busy in the fading light of the Mediterranean Sea. Admiral Garcia exited the lift from the CIC below the bridge. "Captain Ramius, are we able to get a signal out?"

"No, sir," Ramius stated. "The N-Jamming is too strong here."

"Not a good thing," Grip-Lock commented. "Because most of the pilots are recovering from reentry. Oh, and Strike now has a Spark."

"A spark of what?" Garcia asked in confusion.

"I think you call them souls," Grip-Lock replied.

"So he's gained sentience?" Murrue asked over her shoulder at her captain's chair.

"Yeah, though he's a bit confused. Perceptor is going to have to work with him."

"Well, get them all inside," Murrue called out. "We've got some work ahead of us until we can get to Gibraltar."

Garcia nodded, his thick fingers rubbing his stout jaw. "With communications out, we're going to need to send a flyer."

"I'll get the technical crews working on prepping a Skygrasper. Lt. Badguriel, you will be in charge of that," Murrue called out.

"Aye, aye, captain!" Natarle called out from below.

* * *

Swerve was grumbling in the water as he helped arc weld a damaged armor plate. Though at least this was the last one.

"Why do I get the feeling this planet would be covered in our ships if we had entered the atmosphere of the planet like that?" Jetstorm mused as he helped with the upper surface of the _Archangel_. The whole ship was being worked on to get it up to full functionality.

"Because with Landshark we probably would," Jetfire remarked from the other side of the bridge where he was helping two crewman make sure the LIDAR was repaired.. "And he's supposed to be a good pilot."

"You had to work with him?" Whirl asked. "Seriously even Magnum thinks he can crash anything."

Jetstorm was shocked that Whirl had worked with anyone on their Elite Guard unit. Or knew Magnum at all. The Wreckers and Elite Guard were usually oil and water. Both units considered them to be the elite of the Autobot forces and the other group was just a bunch of posers.

"Met him in the battles for Vehicon along with Rapido," Whirl said. "Fighting Megazarak was a pain in the reactor linkage."

Swerve walked up the side and out of the water, using the magnetic grapples in his feet. "You want to talk about someone that has met everyone... that's Downshift."

A couple of the crewmen working on some of the weapon hatches just shook their head. And to believe Murdoch said this was normal.

The starboard launch port opened, extending the electromagnetic rails as a new machine was wheeled out. Mu gave the thumb's up to the crew and then held on when the Skygrasper was flung into the sky. Standing it on its tail, he rocketed right up.

"Man, that's a sweet fighter. Cyclonus and his bunch aren't going to like fighting them, I bet," Hot Shot called out as he zoomed in on the departing fighter.

All five Minicons pondered if the jet would make for a good alt mode for their bulk forms. They started buzzing and beeping in their native cybertronian for a long minute as they compared colors.

"So who did they sent as the pilot anyway?" Thunderstick asked.

"Looks like Mu," Whirl remarked as his optics zoomed in. "Wonder if they're going to even ask what happened to the _Archangel_ this time."

"I think they really don't want to know," Jolt noted. "Given we take their believed laws of physics and violently shake them."

"Not that they haven't done a good job at freaking us out as well," Swerve commented.

"We could always tell them about that group of weirdos on Quartex," Downshift said with a shutter. Seriously having rocks as your alt mode? What in the name of Primus was that good for?

"Yeah, Small Foot told me all about them," Swerve recalled. "And a planet where everyone turns into swords."

"You do realize all this will make the heads of Earth Alliance's top brass explode?" Whirl asked. "So we better wait for the anti-genetics pricks of the Atlantic Treaty before we tell them everything."

"And you bring the Corona Solar Lites," Swerve commented.

"I would if I didn't leave my supply of those on the Steel Haven," Whirl stated.

Then something hit Jetfire. "Exactly how many people do you think got killed when the _Archangel_ transformed?"

"There's a very good reason you don't have anyone in the cockpit or behind the wheel of your alt mode when you transform," Jetstorm noted.

"Splat is more like it," Downshift muttered as he rubbed at a rust spot on his black forearm. "We got lucky, slags. Only two crew were crushed. A lot of minor injuries. I think Lacus broke an arm. I heard her Haro rescued her."

"I hope Kira and Lacus recover," Hot Shot commented. "I like those two."

Perceptor ignored that as he continued to tweak the Gotfried particle cannons. On top of increasing their power and range, he used that innate ability of all Transformer mechanics and engineers to see where it could flex, adjust in preparation for transformations.

The infirmary of the _Archangel_ was quite full. Nicol Amalfi was still in an airlock, so was not present. Kira was unconscious as he was subjected to batteries of tests. Over in the triage area, Mirallia and Flay were busy helping the combat medics tend to cuts, bruises and breaks among the many soldiers and pilots. Among them were a few civilians.

"Will she be all right?" the slightly older student from Heliopolis asked a gray haired medic.

He nodded. "It was a clean break."

"Lacus! Lacus must be all right!" Haro exclaimed, only to be snatched up by the medic. "Hey!"

"You aren't supposed to be in here!"

"I'll take him. I think I need a small break and some food," Flay said with a flat look in her eyes.

About five minutes later, as Flay carried Haro into the main docking bay of the _Archangel_, it spoke up again.

"Thank you, Flay. Haro does not understand why you do not like Lacus, but sees you trying to help," the little pink ball called out.

"You don't know anything," she almost snarled at him. She could grab a heavy wrench and find an out of the way corner.

"No, not big enough to be smart. Haro too small." The Haro transformed into a little transformer, all of two feet tall.

That caused Flay to drop the robot. It was one of the monsters! Evil, transforming father-killers! "You-!"

"Haro like Flay," the little robot called out as it hugged her leg. "Thank you for helping Lacus!"

Her skin was crawling, but it was acting like a puppy. With slow care and precision, she patted him on the head and gently pushed him away. "What... are you?"

"Transform! Transform!" Haro shouted, turning into the metal ball that bounced and then rolled into a spin before turning into a miniature robot gain. "Lacus! Lacus? Where are you?" He ran off in the direction of the infirmary again.

Flay was left trembling for over ten minutes. She could not tell, deep within those dark places of her heart, if it it hate or self-loathing that had paralyzed her. And she had this feeling she was in a world transformed and nothing was what it seemed to be.

* * *

Mu La Flaga wagged his wings as the two ZAFT AMF-101 DINNs rocketed up to him. The stout, six-winged purple and silver mobilesuits were not much of a 'fighter' but did have mobilesuit armor and agility on their side. He activated his short-range combat radio. "This is Lt. Commander La Flaga of the _Archangel_ requesting contact."

Within a low shriek of distortion, his reply came back. "La Flaga? I thought you were in space?"

"The _Archangel_ descended from the orbital battle against the Decepticons. Can you guys lead me to Gibraltar so I can fill in ZAFT HQ and look at resupplying us?" the ace pilot called out. He wondered how well it would do against the mobilesuits on the _Archangel_. 'Bad, Mu. Those are allies for now.'

The lead DINN pointed into the distance. "After you, commander."

Not a very trusting bunch, Mu thought to himself. "Roger."

It was only a few hours flight before his Skygrasper was wheeling down the tarmac towards the rows of bunkers and hardened buildings. GINNs tromped by on patrol, even as he followed the air-traffic control's directions in the sweltering heat of Africa. Popping the hatch, he shed his lavender helmet and stepped down the roll-stairs. "Thanks, guys!"

The groundcrew gave him a thumb's up, even as the petty officer pointed him over to a grizzled man in a tan trench-coat. With his wild brown side burns, he could only be Andrew Waltfield; the Desert Tiger.

"Strange isn't it?" the Desert Tiger mused. "Here I thought we'd be in a conflict without end. Then we find out Le Creuset has a talent for arousing the ire of extra solar aliens."

"Who have a talent for making the strangest things possible," Mu commented. "You won't believe half the things I've seen since they first appeared."

"How about we discuss this like gentlemen over coffee?" the ZAFT commander asked. "Martin! Rustle up some decent grub while I have a small meeting with the Hawk of Endymion. Aisha?"

"Coming, Andy!" the pretty, female coordinator said. She gestured over at ground car.

It was a short drive to a large manor just off base. Andy immediately went about puttering with his espresso machine to make three fairly fancy coffee cups.

"Any cream or sugar?" the ZAFT commander asked.

"No, I think I'm good by that smell." Mu took the cup and sipped it cautiously due to the heat. "A very nice blend. A local one from Africa, it tastes like."

"Exactly. But you are here to talk about our cease-fire and working together against the giant, evil-robot menace from outer space!" Andy had a wide grin at that pronouncement.

"With allies of giant good-guy robots. I think the _Archangel_ should be moved here, refitted and then resupplied. Do you have a line of communications to the Eurasian Federation?" the ace pilot asked.

"Yes, they actually are sending one of their carrier groups to that ship. We have a couple of submarines headed there too. With strict orders to not start a fight."

"Andy!" Aisha reproved him for his roguish behavoir.

"But I did! No starting a war or I'll put them of foot patrol out in Lybia."

* * *

In Galvatron's throne room, the Emperor of Destruction was holding a meeting with his high ranking generals through a video screens that floated ethereally in the room.

"I can be there in four deca-cycle Lord Galvatron," Strika stated. The stocky grey and purple female Decepticon had a gleeful expression on her face at being able to crush some Autobots.

This brought a smile to Galvatron's face. He always could trust his General of Destruction to come through for him. And someone else could be in charge of turning Chaar into a full sized Decepticon colony at this point.

"I will leave at once to crush these humans," Windrazor said with a voice that sounded like wind going through skulls. The gun metal grey Seeker clenched his fist. His golden head gleamed as his blood red optics glowed for a moment.

Behind Windrazor, his right-hand man Nightscream, smirked. This was perfect for his plans. He would get his revenge on Galvatron and set up Windrazor to be Decepticon leader. And then he could easily crush him at a time of his choosing and finally the Emperor of Destruction would be he, Starscream as he really was, as it was meant to be.

"Of course, Galvatron," General Sideways said respectfully. The purple and black dimension hopping Unicronian agent wondered what was it about Earth that attracted Cybertronians to the place. Still these humans seemed to be more then target practice. And no annoying human children the Autobots let hang out with them.

"Understood," Jhiaxus said bowing his head. "However it will take me six quartex to get to your current location."

The grey, purple and orange Decepticon general wondered if just cyberforming the Earth into a copy of Cybertron would solve all their problems.

Of course, that was always his solution. Of course it also seemed to work pretty well for him as well. And there were seventeen worlds in the Decepticon Empire because of that solution.

While Onslaught was silent and plotted. The olive green and navy blue tactician pondered how a force like humanity could shift the war back in the Autobot's favor. Especially with two of Cybertron's moons as staging grounds for an attempt to take back Cybertron. This was important, as most of the ways of creating new Transformers were on their homeworld and whoever controlled Cybertron could easily replace their losses with fresh troops. _If_ they had proper supplies of energy and raw materials. Cybertron had special technologies and abilities, but it was nearly a desolate wasteland after the war.

'Though if they were able to turn human machines into Transformers,' Onslaught mused. 'Then even without access to the depths of Cybertron they could increase their troops. And that logistical advantage is far more devastating then anything else they can gain."

And the logistical increase of troops if humanity and their weapons were on par with Cybertronians.

* * *

Out in the deeps of the Mediterranean Sea a massive ship broke water like a whale. The ZAFT carrier submarine raised lights on it periscope mast, flashing signals at the even more massive white ship slowly plowing through the water.

"Contact! We are receiving a visual signal from the _Porthos_, a ZAFT vessel," the communications officer called out to Natarle who was standing watch.

"What's the message?" the lieutenant asked as she stared to the port at the submarine.

"They are asking if we need any assistance."

Natarle nodded. "Thank them and say we do need to recharge our capacitors up to 100 %. So if they could link up to provide us a boost, that would be appreciated." While the _Archangel_ ran on nuclear power over the long term, it had incredible, high-density capacitors that it used during combat for the very energy intensive weapons like the positron cannon.

"Contact! It's a flight out from the _John Adams_. They are informing us that the Atlantic Second Fleet will be here in six hours at current speed."

The black-haired officer. "That's good news." She flipped up the keyboard that was part of the captain's chair to send a quick message to Garcia and Murrue. They would both want to know what was transpiring.

The next day, the large fleet was traveling westward. The Porthos was finally disconnected to the _Archangel_, as the capacitors had not finished charging after only ten hours, which was unnerving the captain of the massive carrier-sub.

The engineering staff of the space carrier were not much better off. Chief Murdoch looked at the Chief Petty Officer that Admiral Garcia had assigned, a too young and bright kid five years his junior.

"You have got to be kidding me. There's no way those can be holding much power. The ship should blow up," the scruffy technician told the red-head.

CPO Adam Eastwell just shrugged. "I know, but that's what the gauges are showing. I figure it's more of that Transformer technology infecting the ship. As it doesn't seem to be hurting anything, I've been ignoring it..."

That was when four nearly-human-sized Transformers ran by with their arms full of pink, glowing cubes. They seemed to be saying something in their language. The only thing any of the Earth Alliance officers caught in their strange language was the word for Energon, which the Minicons were prone to start chanting when they were excited.

"I don't know why they are so excited. It's like they've been out of that Energon for so long, that they consider it a treat," Eastwell pondered aloud.

"Hmm. Maybe it is. This could be 'good times' for them."

Murrue sat in her captain's chair, very aware that Admiral Garcia was standing behind her. "Lifters to full power."

The _Archangel_ lifted up and out of the water, leaving the waterborn fleet behind in its wake. With a rumble that shook the very earth, it left a dripping trail as it flew over a sandy beach towards the ZAFT base that was baking in the hot son.

The Autobots were the first off the ship, as they did not even wait for it to stop. Hot Shot transformed and burned some rubber as he rocketed off the port landing bay. His engine roared like a massive predator animal as he kicked up a rooster-tail of dust as he accelerated so fast he almost fish-tailed.

Swerve thumped to the ground in a massive leap. "Yeah! It feels like quartexs since most of us transformed," he said before transforming.

"That isn't quite true," Perceptor remarked in his flat tone.

"It feels like it though," Downshift admitted even as the _Archangel_ continued to rumble over the smaller beings.

Finally it came to a halt on the edge of the massive landing field, next to the _Lesseps_, the ZAFT land-battleship was dwarfed next to the battle-carrier. Ramps extended and the landing bays opened without extending the magnetic accelerators.

"So you see that's what you call the Greys are to us," Roadhauler said to Dearka as they exited the _Archangel_.

"Interesting," Dearka said politely. He wasn't sure if it was true or not but it at least was entertaining.

Yzak's expression as he followed the pair made it clear he didn't believe a word of it. He wasn't sure what was going on any more. His black and white world had been transformed into a bright and vibrantly colored one but for the greys to be that...well that was just crazy. He was also annoyed he was going to have to tell the Desert Tiger the Decepticons didn't kick their ass, but it was reentry and most of them having to be fished out of the water.

The only way this day could get worse was for Blue Cosmos to attack.

'On second thought I'd be able to shoot them with my improved Duel,' Yzak mused in his mind. 'Hell I'm sure half they are just jealous of Coordinator abilities."

Skysickle was flying around when they saw a teen girl walking towards the starboard landing ramp where the white uniforms of Earth Alliance officers were just appearing. The man following her did not look happy, but did not seem to have any way of stopping her for some reason.

She seemed to be looking for something. One of the crew members intercepted her.

"Can I help you?" the soldier asked, trying to keep her from intruding upon the commissioned officers.

"Yeah, you can tell me where ORB's mobilesuits are so they can be handed over!" she almost shouted in his face.

The silence was almost deafening at that pronouncement. "Excuse me?"

"I'm Cagalli Attha of ORB and I've been tasked with retrieving our _borrowed_ equipment." She looked nothing like a noble lady, though she was certainly acting the part.

"Our bulk bodies!" Thunderstick wailed as he transformed and landed.

"Aren't interstellar rules of salvage 'I found it, I'm keeping it, and you can kiss my boron compressor'?" Jolt asked.

Perceptor knelt slightly and put his hand on Jolt's shoulder. "This is a political decision, Autobot."

"Well, Grimlock would have told them off and then changed the codes so they never could use them again," Thunderstick grumbled.

Hot Shot clanked his fist on gold and blue Minicon' head. "None of that. We'll see about some other options for you guys so you can fight along side of us."

"Hot Shot is correct. Perceptor has been factoring in upgrading Minicons to full bulk bodies for over a deca-cycle," the monotoned scientist said.

Admiral Garcia was feeling a headache coming on already. "Miss Attha, why don't you accompany us to Commander Waltfeld's meeting so we can discuss this in a civilized manner."

* * *

The red and blue figure looked over the information that had just been brought to him by one of his trusted sources. Yellow eyes flashed for just a second as the large Autobot stood up. Hitting a communication button, he spoke, "Autobots, this is Optimus Prime. Prepare to roll out. We have a new mission of great importance."


	9. Welcome to the party

A massive Autobot battle-cruiser lifted off from the launch pad outside of Metroplex on Omnitron. A blue robot with what appeared to be a metal cigar in his mouth didn't seem effected as other members of the ship's crew had the arm rests of their seats put together to form seat belts.

"Aren't you going to buckle up Kup?" a large green Transformer asked.

"No need, Bulkhead," Kup offhandly remarked. "I'm sticking to the floor like Junkions to a scrap yard."

"Oh, he'll be on the floor alright," Huffer remarked. The purple and orange pessimist was not looking forward to where they were going.

The thing that astonished Huffer was that Kup didn't move a mechanometer as the Ark rocketed through atmosphere of the current capital planet of the Autobot Commonwealth. Like inertia didn't apply to him.

"I still can't believe they managed to drive off Galvatron and his forces," Ironhide stated.

"Well they got Galvatron angry enough to put a bigger bounty on their head then Prime has," Sideswipe commented dryly.

"Primus," Windcharger muttered.

"And now Galvatron is marshaling his forces to destroy them all," Optimus Prime stated. "We can not allow that to happen!"

"Good thing Sideways has a loose vocalizer," Kup remarked. While Optimus Prime wasn't so sure about that. Sideways seemed to be playing his own game and telling Punch about this while he was in his undercover Counterpunch form would benefit him.

'What are you up to Sideways?' Optimus Prime mused. Optimus couldn't shake the feeling that Earth would be important and that whatever Sideways was up to would have dire results for the Autobots.

"It'll take us at least two deca-cycles to reach the system," Windcharger said from the nav console.

"That's why they must have picked it," Wheeljack spoke up. "A young star and the third planet is geologically active. Perfect place to gather a lot of energy and off the beaten path made it perfect to set up a safehouse in case we needed one."

"Sounds more like they got stuck," Bulkhead noted.

"And why I got stuck on this with you," Huffer grumbled in annoyance. He'd have to build the Space Bridge and keep Bulkhead from wrecking it. Yeah that was the perfect way to spend his time and effort. It was as rewarding as telling Omega Supreme to stop guzzling energon.

* * *

Galvatron looked up from a computer panel were he was going over reports and sensor logs in his work-quarters. "Ah, Leozak. Your team is at full strength?" The dim room was full of computer consoles and trophies of defeated foes.

The silver and blue Decepticon nodded. "Yes, mighty Galvatron. We are ready to serve."

"I want you to raid this Gibraltar Base and gauge its strength. Try to draw out that Supreme. I think without surprise on its side, it may not be as dangerous as it appeared." Galvatron adjusted his forearm cannon. "If it is dangerous as it showed, we will have to wait for others to bring it down with your brothers."

It was unstated that it required several combiners to defeat a Supreme-class Transformer like that since Roadfire, Sonic Bomber, and Dai Atlas had managed to destroy the powerhouse Decepticon Blackout on Seiei 001.

That caused Leozak to smile nastily. "I understand, Galvatron. It has been a long time since we killed a Supreme, hasn't it?"

"Exactly. While the human's technology is fairly advanced, it appears it requires at least twice the mass for our own performance. Those Guardians that the new Supreme deployed are certainly at least a match with one of our warriors." Galvatron rubbed his chin in thought. "The Sweeps will be raiding a power plant to gather more Energon. This whole situation stinks of some sort of secret collusion between these humans and the Autobots. I don't think it is Perceptor. It is more subtle than my records indicate the scientist is."

"You think there may be a new rising star among the Autobots?" Leozak asked, thinking things over.

"Yes. There is, of course, no way that this could all happen coincidentally. So the Autobots must have figured out a way to awaken a spark here. I've ordered a full investigation on Cyberton to find out how they smuggled it out to this backwater region."

Leozak nodded grimly. He did not have to state how bad this could affect the war. The last time the Autobots had seriously replenished their forces, they had almost taken Cyberton. And right now, they were closer to equal than most would realize. Optimus Prime had turned back overwhelming attacks with startling regularity.

* * *

Admiral Garcia wanted to loosen his white collar from his stocky neck. This was becoming a pain in the butt. He looked over the assembled officers and politicians in the center of the large hanger, with three of the Autobots watching from the edges. "Miss Athha, until we have formalized a treaty of self-defense with ORB, we are currently unable to hand over your prototype ASTRAYs. They have classified alien secret techologies that are best used in defense of the planet."

Andy Waltfeld sighed. Here we go again. He took a sip of his admittedly pleasant coffee. Which was the only pleasant thing about this meeting so far.

Cagalli looked like she wanted to rip something apart. "Those are ORB's property and they were stolen out of a top secret ORB company; Morgenrote-"

Colonel Kisaki coughed slightly, interrupting the teen he was chaperoning. "Perhaps we could work out a middle ground."

Cagalli glared at Garcia and Murrue as if they were bitter enemies, but finally nodded. "I believe my government would want them within trusted custody as soon as possible."

"That would be a tricky proposition without them leaving the _Archangel_ for now," Murrue noted aloud, then took a drink of her ice water.

The admiral had a thought. "Well, if you happened to have a couple of pilots, you could second them to O.M.N.I. so that they are technically in the control of your people, but under our orders."

Kisaki nodded. "That doesn't seem unreasonable."

Andy and Aisha both gave the rear admiral a considering thought. That had been rather elegant in some ways.

"Very well," the young blonde said. "Colonel Kisaki and I will transfer to the _Archangel_. We'll take custody of the ASTRAYs while being technically under your command."

That surprised everyone else, even the Autobots. Perceptor traded cautious looks with Hot Shot and Whirl.

"We need combat qualified pilots-" Natarle started to say.

"I'm qualified in every combat vehicle that ORB uses and hold the speciary rank of lieutenant in our palace reserves," the hot-headed noble said, cutting her off. "The same vehicles that we co-developed for the Atlantic Federation, of course."

An aide scurried over to Martin DeCosta, who frowned at the message. He quickly leaned over, "Boss? We have a mobilesuit running amuck. Some trainee lost control and its smashing into things."

Andy just looked up at the roof, wondering what else could go wrong today. "So just assign Becker's GINN team to capture it before it breaks anything."

"That's just it, Andy. It's not one of ours. It's one of _theirs_," he said, making a small gesture at the Earth Alliance senior officers.

That was just in front of the non-commissioned petty officer from the Archangel that trotted up and whispered a message to Captain Ramius. She then whispered something to Garcia and then took off at something barely less than a run. A dignified jog, perhaps.

In the gold and white ASTRAY, Flay was finding that getting the mobile suit to move was not easy. She hoped she hadn't stepped on anyone. The feet for the unit were the size of a small car.

"Maybe I can get Galvatron to die laughing at this rate," Flay grumbled. "Why isn't this as easy as it looks on TV?"

"Are you completely insane?" Dearka yelled in the Gundam Buster. He had been called to restrain the run away ASTRAY. He was trotting over as quickly as he could, but the ASTRAYs were faster than they looked.

"I'm getting it under control!" she shouted out. Sweat was slicking her hair to her head under her flight helmet.

"RUN AWAY!" screamed Jolt. "She's lost slagging lost! She's going to kill us all!" He had to duck flat as the gold ASTRAY nearly took off his head as it stomped around drunkenly.

Jetstorm shook his head. Didn't they have locks on the doors for these things? Like they had on Autobot ships to the armory. The only good thing was that Perceptor hadn't built the armored shroud he had planned for the Astrays yet. They didn't need whoever was driving the Gold Astray to have live ammo at their disposal.

"You know now would be a great time to know how to build a null-ray," Downshift yelled out as he snagged Roadhandler from getting kicked. Whirl hit his forehead with his left hand.

Flay bit her lip and then finally got the ASTRAY to stop and stand tall. "I got it. I got it. Now... to run." The standing mobilesuit suddenly crouched and then leaped forward and started to run across the tarmac, causing ZAFT soldiers to scatter even though she was nowhere near them. "And... turn." The ASTRAY turned quickly, if clumsily, and kept going.

Whirl looked surprised as he got his Null Ray module fitted over his blaster. He hadn't used the thing in so long it wasn't until Downshift mentioned it that he even remembered having that attachment. Perceptor was going to be really annoyed with him about forgetting something that could have come in handy.

"Dammit! Slow the hell down!" Dearka shouted as the Buster tried to keep up with the faster mobilesuit. The Buster really was set up for fire support. "Yzak, how long is it going to take you to finish starting up?"

"They were in the process of maintaining it, jerk! The Aegis is still being worked on!" the silver-haired pilot yelled from within his open cockpit.

"I do not understand. The human is learning to control the Guardian. Is this not good?" Strike asked Downshift, whom he loomed over by a good six meters.

The gold ASTRAY cornered and then leaped into the air. "I'm getting it. I really am getting it." Her breath was labored in her ears as a maniac smile plastered itself onto her face. If any of the Autobots or Ramius saw that, they would have never let her near a mobile suit or mobile armor ever again.

Jetfire was flying overhead, ready to swoop in at a moment's notice. But the ASTRAY really was avoiding people in its frentic movements. Of course the same movements scared everyone enough to stay as far away from the out of control mobile suit as they could.

Strike suddenly blasted into the air and cross the half mile in seconds, tackling the ASTRAY. "You guys are being too gentle. You in there, stay down!"

"Er, I guess he's got it under control," Skysickle called out. The lugnut was pretty fast for being so big.

"We were just making sure we didn't hurt the pilot," Whirl yelled. "At least get them out of the Astray before we do that."

"Ow. Ow. Ow." Flay's head was throbbing from where she had smacked it. Wearing the helmet and flightsuit had saved her from serious injury though. "Okay, guess I'm done." The gold ASTRAY was stood back up and the hatch opened.

"What the inferno is wrong with you?" Downshift said in a hard tone. "This isn't the time for a joyride."

"I'm going to kill Galvatron," Flay snapped as she rode the zipline down to the ground, holding onto the cable desperately.

"Kid are you Primusdamn stupid?" Whirl asked. "You have any idea how many people have tried to kill Galvatron? And I mean Autobots _and_ Decepticons."

"You'll never get anything done with that attitude," Flay yelled back as she doffed her helmet.

Cagali stormed over to Flay and slapped her. "What are you doing, damaging ORB property?" she snapped out.

"Who the hell are you?" Flay yelled.

"One of the new pilots it seems, " Whirl remarked. "Still there are only two of them so if you asked we'd have kicked around the idea of letting you be the third pilot Flay."

"Now Grimlock will be the key speaker on diplomacy and rational thought at the Shockblast mecha soccer arena on New Kaon before we let you drive one of those again," Downshift stated. Flay was fairly sure that was an event that wouldn't ever happen.

Mu La Flaga, Kira, Yzak and Athrun had finally caught up, as it was quite a run over from the Archangel.

"You know, that might have been the school of hard knocks there, but she actually did a halfway decent job there," Mu noted aloud.

"You can't be seriously suggesting she enlist so she can be a pilot, are you?" Kira snapped at his superior officer.

"ZAFT blows up our colony, then the Decepticons kill my father. How else am I supposed to fight?" Flay shouted out, tears in her eyes.

"Maybe if you didn't scare everyone and act like a psycho would help!" Yzak yelled right back. "Seriously you think driving around a mobile suit without asking will get you praise!"

"Classy," Whirl interjected. "Oh and nice to see you are awake, Kira. Meet your ex-mobile suit. Kid still doesn't have a name yet."

Cagalli was frowning at the other girl. "You're a citizen of ORB?"

"Dual citizenship," Flay replied cautiously.

Kisaki sighed as he saw where this was going.

"She can be a trainee for now, but has to join ORB's military." Cagalli could not fault the other girl for wanting revenge for the murder of her father.

"Can I be in charge of her boot camp?" Whirl said with his blue optics glowing. "Just like Kup was with me."

"Cup?" Yzak said in disbelief. "Was dipstick already taken?"

"Not funny and I know a bot named that." Swerve said. "He's a construction foreman on Gigantion."

"I think that Colonel Kisaki and I should be in charge of training," Cagalli said, interrupting them before they could get into a fight.

"Kira, I want you to pilot that ASTRAY back to the Archangel. Miss Allster, you are with me," Mu ordered. "Miss Atha, I'll be seeing you later."

"Hey," Swerve said to Strike. "What do you transform into anyway?"

"Transform?" Strike said sounding confused.

"This is going to take a lot of work," Jetstorm remarked as he held up his hands helplessly.

* * *

Flay was seriously reconsidering her thought of joining the military after only a week. Who knew there was so much running and pushups in it? Beside her, Kira was huffing along side. He was doing much better than she was though.

The ORB colonel was a merciless taskmaster, but really knew his information. Surprisingly, the girl was actually sticking to her motivation.

They came to a halt as they saw the Strike practicing sword forms against the Aegis while Downshift and the Minicons watched on. Well, the Minicons were cheering each hit or block. The Strike was remarkably quick and a very fast learner, but his skills were still that of a beginner. He was depending a lot on his shield. Athrun was surprised at the 'training' energy weapons that Perceptor had shown him. The stoic Autobot had been too busy to upgrade them himself, but Athrun and Downshift had figured it out on their own.

Downshift looked down downcast for a moment when he thought that Drift would have been perfect to help Strike and Athrun with their swordsmanship.

That was when the ammo dump bunker for the GINN and BuCUE armaments exploded in a huge mushroom, knocking the humans over with the blast wave.

A blue and gunmetal drilling machine exploded out of the ground nearby. "Hahahaha! That was really good!" a Transformer's voice came from it.

"An attack?" Downshift called out in surprise.

The large drilling machine suddenly transformed into Drillhorn. "Hey, guys? Did you miss me?" he shouted as he started firing his blaster quickly at the three robots. Strike put up his shield while the Aegis jet-jumped out of the way. Downshift grunted in pain, but it was really superficial.

"Retreat to the Archangel!" Kisaki shouted. "Move! Move!"

The humans staggered to their feet and started running towards the ship even as two jets and an assault chopper came in low from the southeast. Behind them, a linear tank and a missile truck started firing. The missiles corkscrewed through the air, slamming into a GINN that had been on border patrol to deafening affect. The crumpled remains exploded even as it fell.

Alarms sounded across the base as Coordinators realized they were under attack by a far inferior number of foes. Leozak and Gaihawk both straffed the land battleships. They quickly found out that they were miniature fortresses in their own right, as they started firing all their cannons in return.

ZAFT's forces started to respond, launching dozens of GINNs and DINNs into the fight, even as Andy and his copilot Aisha led the animal-like BuCUEs to race out.

"Let's do this by the numbers, people. Keep them distracted and off balance," the ZAFT commander ordered.

"Hey, did the Predacons show up and forget to tell us?" Deathcobra asked as he saw the Desert Tiger's orange BuCUE.

The left most BuCUE suddenly launched a set of thirteen missiles from its rump-mounted launcher.

"That wasn't nice," the yellow and green assault helicopter snarled out, even as he dodged or blasted the missiles out of the air.

Andy's BuCUE slid into position as his twin liner rail-guns tracked and then fired, hitting the helicopter and cracking his armor.

"Wish my new LaGOWE was ready. Hear it's supposed to be a sweet ride, eh Aisha?" he shouted back to his copilot.

"I think we can handle this, Andy," his stunning companion said with a smirk.

Another GINN exploded as Drillhorn drilled right through it in vehicle mode. "These guys really aren't that tough." He transformed and twisted to blast another GINN, causing a lot of damage.

So when the Buster's 350mm cannon fired, it only creased his shoulder and sent him spinning.

"Yeah!" Dearka shouted. "That's the way to do it!" He was already lining up a second attack.

"Nicol, you are with me. Yzak, you and Dearka take out that linear tank and missile truck," Athrun called out, even as the Aegis banked upwards on its Guul platform as he launched from the _Archangel_. The Blitz was right behind him on another Guul.

"Roger," Nicol called out. They had to relieve the land battleships, as those jets were starting to breach the armor at points.

Leozack and Gaihawk had to break off their next attack run as the two Guardians on some sort of flying platforms started their own attack runs. DINNs immediately fell behind the two Gundams to give support, making the situation harder.

"Miserable humans! Die!" the lead silver and aqua-blue Decepticon jet shouted. His hardmounted nose-blasters fired at the red mobilesuit, only to see it dodge the attack with practiced ease. Much better than those ZAFT helicopters anyways.

"These guys are pretty good. Do we really want to hold off on combining into Liokaiser?" the red and yellow jet asked him, even as he tried to pulverize the black mobilesuit in front of him. It just took his blasts on its strange shield that tried to fire a armor piercing spike at him.

"We need to save it for when that Supreme transforms," Leozack replied in an annoyed tone.

"It looks like it isn't doing anything," Killbison remarked as he blew up a BuCUE.

Then the six Decepticons heard a battle cry that would have made Hellbat duck for cover.

"Wreck and Rule!" as Whirl leaped out from behind a behind a ruined building and shoved his extended knife into Drillhorn. There was a shower of sparks as the blade went deep into the Decepticon.

The blue and gray Decepticon reacted instinctively, kicking out and knocking Whirl back before the blue Wrecker could gut his spark. He was just recovering when an ORB tactical command truck plowed him over, then transformed.

"All Autobots, concentrate and defeat the enemy!" Perceptor called out, even as he blasted at Drillhorn to try and finish him off.

The damaged but canny Decepticon transformed and drilled under the earth, ducking the attack.

"Slag! I nearly had him!"

While the Strike tried to attack Leozack and Gaihawk but they were much faster in the air. It annoyed the young Autobot who wanted a way into the sky. "Higher!" 'Faster!' he thought. 'I have to get higher!'

Suddenly, with a massive ratcheting noise that did not sound altogether good, he transformed into a roughly jet-shape and rocketed at the pair of Decepticons. The new, Cybertronian-style jet plowed into Gaihawk and knocked him out of the sky.

"What? When did you gain that ability?" the red and orange Decepticon demanded.

The Strike transformed again, less painfully this time. "Just now." He pointed his particle beam rifle and took a pot shot, but Gaihawk managed to dodge while firing back with his own blaster. The Strike then fired his head mounted rapid-fire laser machine guns.

Deathcobra was laughing maniacally as he strafed a row of ZAFT soldiers and exploded an unwary a ZuOOT artillery mobilesuit that a pilot had rushed out into service. "Die! Die! Die you useless bags of water!"

The three ASTRAYs were moving out of the Archangel, adding their firepower to the confusion. Kira was in the white and gold ASTRAY, set up with a spare Sword Striker. With his improved speed, he clipped off one of the turrets of Killbison in his linear tank form. He barely transformed and rolled to the side.

"Man, it's always the guns!" he complained even as he staggered under all five Minicons firing him.

"We can get him! Blast him!" Roadhandler shouted as he blasted at Killbison.

"I'll slagging show Whirl that I'm ready for a real Primus-charged bulk body!" Jolt shouted as he fired continuously at the yellow and silver Decepticon. While Skysickle and Thunderstick transformed into their gun modes and let Killbison have it.

Cagalli had the red ASTRAY taking careful, leading shots at Leozak with a heavy impulse cannon. "Stand still, you bastard!"

Colonel Kisaki had moved to support, firing at any Decepticon that even looked like it was headed to the young noble. He had to admit the scatterblaster as they called was quite effective at deterring the Decepticons from coming close to the Red Astray.

Above, Athrun noted the destruction that Deathcobra was unleashing, distracting him. Leozak moved into the kill position when something seemed to shatter with the young coordinator.

"No." This could not be allowed to happen. With a preternatural clarity, he leaped off his GuuL, dodging Leozak's attack like he had been standing still.

"What? Where did he go?" the leader of this band of Decepticons asked, checking to make sure that he was not being bracketed.

The red Aegis transformed into a strange clawed contraption. In the center of it, the aperture for his 580mm multi-phase energy cannon was revealed, blasting at the green and yellow Decepticon that was busy kicking the feet out from below another ZuOOT that was just hopelessly outclassed by the nimble foe.

The blast exploded with a huge concussion, knocking Deathcobra and the ZuOOT over. "What?" the Decepticon called out.

Still in the strange no-time of perfection, the Aegis landed in its mobilesuit mode only three hundred feet away. "You will not hurt anyone else!" the black-haired and green-eyed Coordinator shouted out, even as the as the Aegis charged in a jet assisted leap.

"Ha! You won't get me-" Deathcobra started to crow, when the Aegis activate all four of its beam-sabers. One hard-mounted on each of his forearms and one on each knee.

The move had been practiced against the Strike and the yellow and green Decepticon could only gape as two of the blades remove his legs and his right arm. His skid backwards was stopped as a huge Gundam-sized foot stomped down on him as the Aegis pointed its beam rifle at him. Flicking on the external com, Athrun demanded, "Surrender... or die!"

"I yield! Slag that! Don't kill me!"

Leozak snarled to himself. They were taking unacceptable amounts of damage and with the capture of Deathcobra, unable to form LioKaiser. At least they had not killed him. "All Decepticons... Retreat!" he yelled out, kicking in his after-burners.

Andy snarled as he saw the missile truck turn and take off at a speed he could manage, but he had more pressing duties. He quickly broadcasted to not chase. None of his forces that were fast enough were in any really shape if they turned to fight as a group. "Well, Aisha, I guess I got that excitement I was wanting."

"What a mess," the knockout female Coordinator said sadly. "And this was only six of them."

"The GINNs and DINNs were not much of a challenge for them, though at least the Gundams and BuCUEs could fight. Looks like we are going to need better mobilesuits as quickly as possible," the commander said. He was also glad Orb's Astrays made a good showing since they were going to need all they help they could get.

Thousands of miles away from the burning wreck of Gibraltar Base, more smoke was rising from the real attack. A massive solar tower had been hijacked by a band of nearly identical looking blue and silver Decepticons.

Scourge looked over the work that the Sweeps had been doing, showing the pile of Energon. "That should be enough. That loser Leozak just retreated from Gibraltar Base. After losing one of his squad."

"Right. Should we destroy that tower?" Sweep 10 shouted out as he pointed towards the massive structure that looked like a mesa sheathed in mirrors.

"No. We might want to come back and fill up again!" Scourge called out, causing all the Decepticons to start laughing.

They quickly transformed into their space-cruiser forms (that vaguely looked like some sort of hover vehicle.) With that down, they rocketed into the sky and towards the waiting _Revenge_.

* * *

Perceptor turned to look over at Hot Shot as he entered one of the hangers that had been given over to the scientist for his work. "I am currently busy and must not be disturbed," he called out in his monotone voice.

"Perceptor, we can't ignore that report that the Sweeps stole enough energy to fully recharge the _Revenge_, Galvatron and his army. We have to do something," the red and yellow Autobot shouted as he moved closer to the massive device.

"Your emotions are clouding your judgement. This Transformer is taking the appropriate action to negate the advantage that Galvatron has accrued." He had not even turned away from the strange lump of generators and the spired that stuck out the top of it.

"What is that thing?" his second in command asked.

"A quantum oscillator amplifier that works on the sub-quark frequency of-"

"Okay, bad question. What does it do? In simple terms," Hot Shot asked quickly.

"It destroys N-Jammers within a radius of one thousand five hundred miles," Perceptor called out. "With that impediment removed, the Earth Alliance and ZAFT forces will be able to activate all mothballed nuclear reactors."

"How much energy are we talking about?" the other Autobot asked.

"Eurasia had fifty nuclear reactors within range, each capable of producing an average of 15 gigawatts of power. With the addition of simple, Cybertronian technology, we can increase that efficiency by thirty percent," Perceptor explained in painstaking detail.

"That's a lot of power," Hot Shot replied as he let the numbers sink in.

"The Earth Alliance and African Union are currently readying all nuclear reactors for immediate activation," Perceptor remarked as he continued to work on the huge device.

"I got the parts you wanted," Jetfire called out as he brought a large amount of materials Hot Shot had no idea what they were.

"Excellent," Perceptor stated almost sounding like he was happy. "These should allow for the production of cold phosphex."

"Cold-! Glass gas!" Hot Spot said as he recalled what that was.

"It's been interesting working under Perceptor," Jetfire remarked in a chipper mood. "Been kind of fun actually do something makes me different from Jetstorm."

"You have some talent for being a scientist," Perceptor noted casually.

That was when two humans drove up in a ZAFT ground vehicle. "Hey, Perceptor! Just got word back from our allies in in the African Union that they are ready," Andy Waltfeld called out as he waved casually. It was hard for him to relate to the robots. They did not even know what coffee _was_ much less how great it could be.

Admiral Garcia smirked as he smoothed his white, naval uniform. "The Eurasian Federation was, of course, all ready from the onset. So we are go for Operation: Light Up."

"Excellent." Perceptor then turned back to his device. "Activating the N-Jammer Destroyer."

Energy crackled across the turbines as tubes started charging up with pinkish energy. The tower part started spinning even as arms reached out from the top of it. With a snap, it discharged all of its energy.

Within seconds, the ground rumbled from discharges. Deep in the Earth, N-Jammers self-destructed as damaging resonances built up within them.

Andy frowned, as he could see why the PLANTs had not been happy with losing their strategic edge against the Earth Alliance. Now they could start fielding nuclear powered mobilearmors again. Hopefully Martin managed to get a good sensor reading so that they could shield the ship portable N-Jammers from this affect in the future. Though the fuel the Transformers used wasn't effected by N-Jammers in the slightest.

All across the north west of Africa and south west of Europe, power plants started to come back to life, feeding hungry energy intensive uses. In Africa, it would have a great affect as desalination plants would start to bring life giving water back to the desert and its people.

"Is the device still functional?" Garcia asked with narrowed eyes.

"It is robust enough for multiple uses, that is correct."

"I'd like to send that around to the powerplant locations. Mostly Eastern Europe and the United States east coast." The factories that could be reactivated would mean they could get the Strike Daggers to full production a month ahead of time, the admiral realized. The only thing that kept it from being perfect was how they had no idea how to mass produce the strange various weapons the Autobots had made for the Gundams and Astrays. Each of the mobilesuit series had proven their worth in the battles and were very powerful.

They would just have to use 'blasters' instead. Mobilesuit sized generic weapons based on Autobot technology.

* * *

The massive, bronze-armored battle-cruiser, the _Ark_, appeared near the Moon in a flash of FTL deceleration.

"I've spotted the _Steel Haven's_ signal on one of the moons of the largest gas giant, Prime," Ironhide called out. "Lots of junk out there."

"No wonder the Junkions like this place," Sunstreaker remarked with disgust. With his luck the organics of this system probably also emitted metal-eating goo from their bodies.

"Quit acting like a glitchhead, will ya?" Bulkhead grumbled in annoyance at Sunstreaker's vanity.

"Slag off," Sunstreaker maturely responded to that.

"Enough of that," Ironhide said with authority. "You two can bicker on your own time later."

"And you wonder why you aren't more popular bro," Sideswipe quipped.

"Picking up a lot of cybertronian alloys," Wheeljack said from the science station. "Identification codes from the remains of the _Blue Nixie, _the _Death's Head_, the _Axalon_, and the _Ultimate Warrior_."

"Three ships and a shuttle blown up already," Kup remarked. "Someone's been busy."

"With all that Primus tri-cursed slag all over the third planet I'm surprised no one has tried dropping the really pieces onto the planet as a weapon," Huffer remarked as he shook his head.

Wheeljack calculated what would do the planet and winced.

"Optimus we're getting a distress call!" Cliffjumper yelled from the communications console. "The Decepticons are attacking a civilian ship in low orbit of Earth."

"Smells like a trap," Ironhide noted with concern.

"I know," Optimus Prime said softly. "But we can't let the Decepticons have free reign if we're around to stop it."

"Taking us in," Sideswipe stated at the helm.

The massive battlecruiser went above the plane of debris to get closer to the degrading orbit that the cargo ship was in. The Revenge immediately turned and retreated, firing only a few covering shots as two Sweeps returned to it.

Inside the MarseilleIII-class named HOME, a beacon was still active. Outside, all of the ships manipulators had been broken off as it spun ever so slowly. Inside the shattered cargo bay, junk filled the scrambled interior.

"Ignore the _Revenge _for right now. Prepare rescue operations. Autobots, let's move out!" Optimus Prime called out even as he tromped to the airlock as quickly as possible.

Cliffjumper and Sideswipe were left in the ship as the rest of the Autobots moved over to the slightly smaller ship. None of them noticed the strange locomotive half buried in the junk on the hold as they moved inward.

Once they were past him, Astrotrain powered up and transformed to his humanoid form. "Sloppy, Optimus Prime. You should have left a guard at the door. Your overwhelming caring for other lifeforms is, as always, your undoing." He slipped outside and then alongside of the _Ark_.

Iron Hide was leading Huffer and Rachet into an area where it looked like devices were being reassembled. "Prime! By the All Spark! It's Drift! He looks mostly okay, but he's in stasis lock."

The white and silver Autobot lay on a massive cradle, with robotic arms and tools around him.

"No time!" Optimus called out.

The young man with spikey brown hair nodded as he rubbed his wrists. "Yeah, those evil robots put bombs on HOME and they plan to blow us and you to kingdom come!"

"All Autobots, evacuate to the _Ark_. Come long, humans. We only have moments before they destroy this ship."

Bumblebee grabbed the younger pair. "Time to rush!"

The woman with long dark hair squinted. "Please, we need to use the emergency life preservers. You'll have to drag those along."

The final member nodded as he ran over, pulling three compressed cylinders out of a cabinet. She pulled a pin and then a trigger, expanding out a large bag that she immediately crawled into. The others were right behind him.

"Wait! Number 8!" the spiky-haired kid yelled, running back to grab a luggable computer. He was then in right behind them, inflating the ball life support modules.

In just moments later, they were being ferried over to the _Ark_ that was already moving away.

The explosions that ripped apart HOME rocked the Autobot ship. That was when Astrotrain made his move, rocketing away as a shuttle. "First explosion!" he called out, even as the first explosive jarred the Ark on the edge, sending it spinning. "And... the second explosion!" All of the rest of the explosives went off, smashing into the engine ports on the back of the battle-cruiser.

Everything seemed fine for just a second, then the secondary explosions from the Ark energon in the engines ignited, disintegrating the back of the battle-cruiser even as it acted like a crude rocket to fling the bronze space ship with great momentum... directly at the blue-white planet below.

"Prime! I've lost thruster control!" Cliffjumper shouted out.

"That's because the back half of the Ark is _gone_!" Iron Hide called out.

"Flatten out our descent! We'll have to aerobrake," Optimus called out, even as he struggled to hold himself still while carrying one of the human life support devices with its precious cargo.

That was when Astrotrain reappeared, strafing the _Ark_ as he took out maneuvering thruster after thruster. "Hahahaha! I've done it! Optimus Prime is doomed!" the triple-changer shouted out.

The _Ark_ shot towards the planet like a brilliant meteor, burning up as it hit the atmosphere.

* * *

OMAKE:

That was when they heard a shout of, "I am Halo Spreem!"

"Looks like he picked a name at least," Whirl weakly joked.

Outside the Strike moved like a confused man besieged by insects as the Haro frantically pushed buttons inside and piloted it across the ZAFT base, smashing building and even upending a land battleship.

"SPREEEM!"


	10. Counting Down

The flaming ruins of the _Ark_ scythed through the air at a steep angle.

"Brace for impact!" Ironhide shouted even he held onto the life support bubble with the dark-haired woman inside.

The evening turned to daylight above the Islands of ORB, as the burning ship passed overhead. Out at sea, the ORB navy was turning in the direction of the crashing ship.

"Battlestations! Batten the hatches and prepare for a tsunami!" shouted out a petty officer on the deck.

The _Ark's_ impact had the force of a nuclear bomb and set off a massive wave that raced towards the islands only fifty miles away. The half mile of water seemed to barely slow the ship, but when it slammed into the silt it had lost almost eighty percent of its velocity and force. That left the _Ark_ half buried at the bottom of the ocean.

"Autobots, report!" Optimus boomed out even as he activated the lights on his body.

All of the Autobots on the bridge chimed in, but there were disturbing gaps elsewhere. Triton, Gizmo, Doubleclouder, Fallback, Backbeat and Download did not respond at all.

"Primus, I sent them back to aft damage control," Kup exclaimed in horror.

"There's nothing we can do about that. Now let us verify our guests health." With a careful poke, Optimus ripped the life support bubble open. "Friend human, are you all right?"

The girl looked up at him in a daze, then nodded. "I'm bruised and a bit battered, but I think I'll live."

The older woman wearing a blouse, skirt and a lab coat poked carefully at her extremities while squinting hard after she was released. "I'm fine also. Kisato, can you see where we are at?"

"Um, it's a large dark room. There's a huge window, but it's covered by mud, I think," the younger member of the Junk Guild explained.

"That is correct. We seem to have crashed into one of the oceans of your planet," Optimus noted. "It appears we were extremely lucky."

"Say... Why is you planet called Earth when it has so much more water than dirt?" Sideswipe asked curiously.

"The more proper name is Sol III, but even that is a simple matter of us not having a good reference to name it in _comparison_ to other planets. We only discovered that there were other sentients here in the last month," the older woman said as she stood up. "I'm the Professor. Thank you for rescuing us."

"It's what we do," Cliffjumper remarked.

"I don't know if this is a bad time," Wheeljack admitted. "But whoever fixed up Drift did a remarkable job."

Bumblebee looked up worriedly from the human he had carried out of the doomed ship. "I think this human needs repair. He's leaking some coolant. And his leg looks like it is bent wrong."

"Lowe!" Kisato shouted. "Professor! He's really hurt!" That broken leg looked really bad.

"I'm sorry, but I think I fell on him during the crash," the A.I. 8 said aloud.

Ratchet walked over and checked. The wound wasn't as serious as he feared, but it still a good idea to let human doctors look over the wound and seal it.

"We need to get him to the hospital," the Autobot medic stated. "And the sooner the better."

"Yeah, and go meet the neighbors," Huffer remarked. "Just hope they don't shoot us instead of talk to us."

"Interesting," Ratchet said as he read a data stream from Teletran. "I'm getting information that might help us here." With that, he transformed into an advanced ambulance; large, red crosses on the sides and back.

"I've got a location of what appears to be emergency medical aid. Autobots, let's roll!" Optimus called out, transformed and opening his door so the two remaining humans could board him.

* * *

"I'm starting to sense a pattern," Patrick Zala remarked. "Every Cybertronian ship but the _Revenge_ has come in the inner part of the Solar System and not too long after that has been wrecked."

"You have to wonder why we bother having these meetings," Ali Kasim commented softly. "All we ever talk about anymore are the Transformers. "

"It seems that Perceptor has no problems using any upgrades we've created for the ORB mobile suits," Yuri Amalfi stated. "The Armored shroud for the Duel is one of the things he's adopted for those units."

"If only he'd just stick to that and not create those N-Jammer destroyers."

"Or them turning Earth Alliance mobile suits into Transformers," Patrick Zala noted in a restrained manner. He found it ironic in another time and place he'd not want the other PLANTS council members to know about an Orb Coordinator piloting the Strike. After all the Transformers had done now they'd only have some interest finding out it was of his son's friends.

The fact said friend was reported to have stood up to Galvatron and the combined form of the six robot team. The same team that heavily damaged a ZAFT base and on their own without merging. Leozak's team had been able to inflicting damage on their land battleships... which was impressive.

'Perhaps giving him one of the new prototypes and having Athrun renew their friendship would be useful,' Patrick Zala mused. Anyone who could fight the Decepticons that well and was a coordinator was worth trying to dine and wine to his side.

"There's also the matter of Commander Rau La Creuset," Parnel Jesek stated. "We can't just show him acting like a good boy, it's time he's brought before a military tribunal."

Patrick winced at that, as it look like Parnel had defected from his camp with a bit of vigor to show his new loyalty.

"The actions of Commander La Creuset were those of a man who had his orders," Louise Leitner stated. "He had no way of knowing a group of extra solar aliens were going stop by to fill up their fuel tank. And his disbelief at their story is completely understandable." The Judiciary Committee head was one of Zala's faction and honestly didn't see anything legally wrong with the actions taken.

"And now the Earth Alliance has access to a fuel source our N-Jammers can't effect in the slightest!" Which was an exaggeration, of course. With the high density batteries, they already had something that would work.

"Which has been quite easy to change mobile suits over to use," Ezalia Joule remarked. "We'd have no problems adapting the technology and it'd make the energy hog defense systems the prototype mobile suits have more cost effective."

"And put a madman that can turn into a seige cannon in our solar system," Siegal Clyne noted. "And many of our children have only barely survived their encounters with him."

Patrick Zala rubbed his forehead for a moment. As useful as La Creuset had been, he was now a heated political issue. One he desired to have around for his plans, but it was looking more and more like that won't be possible. Of course his plans were also being changed due to the Transformers. Perhaps if he could get O.M.N.I. used as shock troops in the battle to take back Cybertron.

Worst came to worst with La Creuset, he could always be let go. Zala knew he could always find someone else for his plans.

"If we must do so," Zala said tiredly. And with that La Creuset's fate was sealed.

* * *

Inside of Heaven's Base, Matias Aducarf looked disappointed. The 'treasure trove' they had discovered of a Transformer ship had turned out to be much less useful then they imagined. Said treasure trove was the extremely durable trophy room of Lockdown.

Most of the weapons and equipment inside were insanely difficult to reproduce. The irony of it was the alloys that made up the armor of the room were easier for their to replicate then anything inside it. One of the few things they figured out was a form of cement that hardened in seconds and was stronger then anything made on Earth. They also found a new form of fire retardant. They had no idea where Lockdown had gotten those, but those two things likely were the quickest they could replicate and sell.

For a group that wished to profit from war that was not what they wanted. And they had high hopes for all the alien weapons in their grasp.

"So what are we calling the armor?" General Haite asked with almost a grunt.

"Cyberium." Matias shrugged at the look he got.

The general nodded, even as they turned away and headed to a manufacturing plant deep within the base. His aides followed him into the deeps where Strike Daggers were starting to be built. Currently, their was only a stripped down prototype.

"This, general, is a the Mark I heavy blaster. Using some of the technology that Admiral Garcia has forwarded to us, we've managed to build a much better energy weapon than almost anything we've seen at a reasonable cost."

"That's some mealy mouthed bull you just spewed their, boy. Why isn't it just 'the best' already? I'm paying you for results, not prevarications."

"The 250mm phase cannon in the Launcher Striker is quite a bit more powerful, but at a premium cost. Though it looks like we can cut some costs or increase its power." The engineering officer shrugged at that.

"Do both. That cannon has quite a kick already, but an even better one means we might be able to take out Galvatron." Haite just smiled at that. Matias looked thoughtful for a moment as he pondered doing that for a Striker Pack.

"Yes, sir. Along with that, we are looking to add a layer of Cyberium. That will make these guys nearly twice as tough. We are looking at an 'Ace' unit that might be armored entirely of Cyberium, which should be tougher even than a Transformer. Well, because our mobilesuits are so much bigger."

"These aren't going to turn sentient, are they?"

"No, sir. We're not even sure how the Strike became sentient. The computers installed in it were nowhere near powerful enough for a true A.I." The engineer, Matias, just shrugged at that. He didn't believe the report on the Strike somehow gaining a soul.

"How about the new Trans-Phaseshift that I heard was in the works? Why aren't we putting that into all of these?"

"Costs. Even with what we are learning from the Transformers, that's not cheap. So again, only for ace suits like Calamity or the Raider series."

"I wonder if ORB would have left those energy hogs out on their ASTRAYs even if they had access to it?" Haite mused. Had the EA brass known about the Astray project being down the road figuratively from their project they might have used it as a basis for a mass produced mobile suit. True, they had the Strike Daggers but having another possibly design like it or the Eurasian Federation's Hyperions was always a good idea.

* * *

Admiral Gerard Garcia had been waiting for all of the Autobots and Minicons to be called away by Perceptor, leaving just 'Strike' behind in the Archangel's hanger. "Gentlemen, take fifteen. I need to speak to the Strike." He waited for the flight crew to depart and then moved in front of the ex-mobilesuit.

The large Transformer looked over at the human in confusion. "You want to talk to me?" He was not sure what to make of the human, as Whirl did not like him and the other Autobots were not totally trusting.

"I do. It occurred to me that your status as an ex-mobilesuit and now a sentient has never been fully dealt with."

"What do you mean dealt with," the Strike asked dangerously.

"Just in the same manner that complications are dealt with. Obviously, it would be _wrong_ to just consider you property. While I can't even imagine how you gained a... Spark, right? Gained a Spark, to the Autobots, that's becoming alive with what they consider a soul. Just the existence of alien species has thrown the worlds religions into disarray, that doesn't apply to you... exactly. Your body is local... terrestrial. You are, in effect, the first native Transformer." Garcia was carefully building up his ground in logic.

"I guess that's true." The Strike really did not get where this was all going.

"And in that case, we have to decide where to put you. I'd like to see you join the Atlantic Federation Navy, as I feel its your real home here with the Archangel and our crew."

"But I like hanging out with Hotshot and the Minicons," he protested. "Though, I feel a strange kinship with the pilot Kira Yamato, too."

"That could be because you awoke in close proximity. Heck, you could be soul siblings somehow. And I don't intend to separate you from the Autobots, but they aren't from our world. They have been fighting their war for thousands of _centuries_."

"And I've seen datatrax of their homeworld," Strike stated. "A hollow metal world the size of Saturn over 700 light years from this planet."

Garcia wondered if the Transformers lived to shake things up. Just as he knew whatever Primus was, be it a deity or a religious figure of some kind was going to make waves. And here he thought a race of machines won't be religious. "Thank you for that bit of information," Garcia stated diplomatically." But this planet is your home, and it needs protection."

"Heliopolis, my birthplace is gone, my siblings were taken and reside now in the _Archangel_," Strike noted. "Cagali seems... to not want to be around me. Flay Allaster, I think compares me to Galvatron."

Garcia was starting to consider his current command a political minefield. He had the children of a good portion of the PLANTs Supreme council on his ship, the daughter of a late Vice Minister who wants to take out what he'd been told was one of the nastiest Transformers in existence who he could see how he gained such a reputation, the headstrong daughter of the head of ORB, and of course the group of Autobots who made it all possible.

"Ms. Allaster has gone through a great loss and has been rubbing a lot of people the wrong way," Garcia stated. "However, you must admit that you came to life over Earth and the _Archangel_ is the closest thing you have to a home right now?"

"Sure, I guess."

Garcia nodded then in acknowledgment. "What I would like to do is commission you as an officer of the Earth Alliance. That way we have you here with us and can have you interface with the Autobots on a more even basis. And it will show that we are willing to be inclusive to all races." In fact, he was also planning on having Athrun and his band seconded to O.M.N.I. officially.

"You want me to fight for the Earth Alliance?" Strike asked surprised.

"We could use the help fighting the Decepticons," Garcia replied. "Plus it'd give you a place to belong. Pay and maintenance for free."

"I..." Strike said. "Whirl doesn't like or trust you, sir."

Garcia didn't look surprised. He figured the Wrecker only barely tolerated him. Not that it was hard given Whirl didn't hide his contempt very well. It was easy to tell when Whirl liked or disliked something. "You don't get to be a flag officer without pissing people off and having people not like you," Garcia explained pragmatically. "Of course, I have theories why an elite commando was taken off his unit for basically babysitting duty, especially if the death rate of his unit is to be believed."

"But.." Strike said softly. "Almost every Autobot looks up to and respects Optimus Prime. Other then Grimlock but he doesn't honestly like anyone."

"The Transformers respect physical ability," Garcia noted. "All their leaders from what I've seen or heard lead from the front. It doesn't work that way for humans. I'd probably have stroke or heart attack if I got into one of the Gundams or ASTRAYs and tried to battle the Decepticons in single combat."

"I honestly don't even have a name," Strike sighed.

"We can always think of something for the paperwork," Garcia said with a shrug. "Everyone's been calling you Strike, so perhaps something along in that vein."

"I like that," Strike admitted. Garcia looked pleased at that.

Unseen by them was a pair of yellow optics. Haro took in the scene slowly, being very confused. Too many large and complicated words.

"There you are," Athrun said as he grabbed the pink robot. Now he finally see what the Autobots had done to this robot.

* * *

Shinn Asuka was at the beach with his family checking the damage the minor tsunami had done when suddenly a red ORB cargo hauler, an ambulance, and a few cars drove out of the water and towards the road at high speeds.

"What was that?" Maru Asuka asked in shock.

Then an orange tow-truck came out of the water and transformed to robot mode. He loomed over the Asuka siblings yet had no weapons in his hands. Shinn put himself between the robot and his sister regardless of that.

"I can't believe it but I might agree with Sunstreaker for once," the robot grumbled. "That has to be a sign of shokaract."

"It's a Transformer!" Shinn yelled.

"Brilliant deduction," Huffer sarcastically remarked. "Got anything else to tell me I already know like stars are balls of hot gasses or that water can be used to make rocket fuel and one of the gasses organics like you breath?"

A yellow car mini-coupe came out of the the water and turned into a robot.

"Don't mind him," the newer robot stated. "He acts like a tricursed glitchhead with something stuck up his tail pipe. All the time."

"Slag off, Bumper," Huffer snarled as he glared at yellow Autobot.

"So to quote a cliche," Bumper stated with an amused grin. "We need to be taken to your leader. We kind of moved into the neighborhood and want to get to know them better."

Shinn's dark red eyes went wide as he imaged trying to introduce a few of the infamous extrasolar robots to the Chief Representative. Lord Attha so far hadn't said much about the Transformers, other then to morn the death of the one that got killed in ZAFT's attack along with so many from Orb.

Until now it all hadn't been any more real then a big budget science fiction movie to Shinn. Then he heard the sound of VTOLS as a pack of six of them flew overhead. Huffer nearly snorted. Yeah that would really be effective. If they just wanted to mess up his paint job and annoy him. At least he wasn't yelling at them to hold their fire while charging at them with a gun. 'Primus knows Wheeljack would probably do that,' Huffer thought.

"Put your hands in the air and don't make any sudden movements!"

The pair of Autobots raised their hands and hoped Ratchet and the others were having better luck.

At the hospital the paramedics gasped when the ambulance they got an injuried young man out of it and then transformed into a robot.

"I'd treat him myself, but organics are not my usual patients," Ratchet stated. "A sentient AI from this planet fell on him."

"Yeah we kind of didn't want to mess up something," Sideswipe said with his hands raised. "Since that's never a good thing."

"So you guys take shanix?" Cliffjumper asked holding up what looked like a giant gold coin in his hand.

"You'll have to speak with the Accounting department," one doctor admitted.

* * *

Lord Attha looked at the preliminary plans for the Akatsuki. He had intended for that to be a last resort weapon in the defense of ORB, but everything he had heard about the Decepticons and their laser weapons made it more of a priority. He also could easily imagine his nation being a battle field between the Autobots and Decepticons due to the Ark being off the coast.

The mobile suit might be their only hope against Galvatron's laser cannon. He doubted his daughter could have a happy and long life with the threat of the Decepticons looming over ORB. They had utterly no regard for sentient life other then to crush it under their heel.

And the three completed Astray prototypes held their own against ZAFT and the Decepticons.

The Lion of ORB hope the Seiran clan would keep from doing something stupid. Unato was at least politically skilled but his son Yuna was frankly nowhere near as effective or powerful as he thought he was. He also had a talent for pissing people off.

'I hope Cagalli can keep Yuna in-line when they're married.' Uzumi thought praying that is what would happen in that union.

Otherwise things would go really bad for ORB before Yuna learned his limitations and not to arouse the ire of the wrong people.

Uzumi Attha was driven from his musings by Chief Engineer and designer for the Astrays Erica Simmons. He quickly closed the file of the blueprints for the Akatsuki.

"Lord Attha..." Erica stated. "Wheeljack is a mad genius."

"Oh?" Uzumi asked.

"I have been asking him about things I have learned off about Transformers internal workings," Erica said proudly. "It has been extremely informative. A pity not with a great deal of practical applications to the mass produced ASTRAY project."

"And the upgrades to the prototype ASTRAYs that Colonel Kisaka has reported on?" Attha asked. They were very interesting to him. Especially the part about Energon. For ORB to have a source of fuel that like that would be a good thing.

"Oh, those we have implimented. The most basic item was a multi-connection power port for weapons along with improvements to the sniper rifle in the works for the A2 Astrays. The beam will be more powerful and the scope will be able to follow faster moving objects."

Uzumi Attha really didn't like having to compete in the arms race with PLANT and the Earth Alliance, but it was the only way to keep ORB free from either party. "And have we gotten any of the weapons mentioned built?"

"We got the scatterblaster and can even mass produce it, however it has one flaw," Simmons stated. "It is not very effective in outer space."

That was a very large limit to the usage of the weapon. It definitely made him wonder if they should mass produce the weapon or not.

"We've also been able to build the energy deflecting material in large scale. We've made a mobile suit sized shield to see how effective it really is."

"Good," Uzumi said with a slight smile. If it worked then the Akatsuki was to be produced. He would fast-track it for development and deployment. And perhaps they should make more of those shields.

"As for the bad news, we tested the energy draining claw and it was shattered with liquid nitrogen," Erica grimaced. "Ironhide's weapon can fire off a wide variety of things like molten lead, or liquid nitrogen, or a very base substance."

"Base?" the Lion of Orb asked with a confused expression on his face.

"As in base on the PH levels," Erica explained. "Water is neutral, acid is one extreme and base is the other."

"And I take it his weapon is something we can't replicate?"

"Sir, I won't know where to begin how to create a gun that can do that."

"Is that a common weapon?" Uzumi asked. He needed to know for sure what sort of weapons would be used against his forces by the Decepticons.

Erica shook her head. "They tend to use laser weapons that are so powerful they are matrixing their energy into a plasma, but there are those like Ironhide that use guns that fire more esoteric ordanace."

"Anything else I should be aware of?" Uzumi asked.

"They also are able to fire energy blasts out of their swords," Erica stated.

"That's...unexpected." Lord Attha admitted. And likely not easy since their upgrades to the Sword Strikers didn't involve that ability.

'Still all this is easier then the conversation I'll be having with the Yamatos. Now more then ever since we know what Kira being an Ultimate Coordinator really means,' Uzumi thought to himself.

* * *

In an upscale apartment in October City that felt like a prison cell to it's owner, two friends met to talk and play chess. Possibly for the last time given the charges one of them had leveled against them.

"Well I'm screwed old friend," Rau remarked with an annoyed tone. "All due to extra-solar aliens."

"Yes, it's hard to imagine that could have happened." Gilbert Durandal commented. "I'm sure a lot of plans have gone up in smoke due to their very presence."

"And you want to know the amusing thing?" Rau said with a smile. "Expect people to shove the motto of the Autobot's leader in your face a lot when they find out about your Destiny plans."

"It's just the masses reciting an interesting meme," Gilbert said with a touch of amusement. "From a race that's about as screwed up as humanity. Perhaps they had a system like I believe will save humanity and it didn't work for them. "

"I just hope you didn't use that as pillow talk with your girlfriend," Rau quipped. "How are you and Talia doing anyway?"

"She wants to have a child and I honestly..." Gilbert trailed off.

"You could always blame it on Galvatron and the Decepticons," Rau noted. "Who'd want to have children with them running around?"

"I don't think she'd take something that transparent very well," Gilbert mused out loud. He knew he had a silver tongue but he also knew there were limits to what it could do. And that would be passing one of them. 'Perhaps I can still salvage at least some of our relationship.' Gilbert pondered. He then put his mind to figuring out how to do that.

"Of course Galvatron might do what I want for me," Rau stated. "It seems humanity and Transformers are all self serving creatures. Disgusting."

Gilbert sighed. He really needed to get Rau a girlfriend. If he didn't know the lengths his friend would go to commit his goals, he'd consider him just a moody and anger teen that wanted to get let off some steam. Still he had to save his friend, and save humanity from itself. He then shivered and the hairs on his neck stood on end.

Rau wondered if his drugs had any side effects as he could make out a purple and black ghostly figure outside the apartment looking into space. He stared at it and was looked back in the eye by the apparition. It radiated cunning and malice and Rau wondered why it was watching him like this. After what felt like an eternity the figure nodded and then vanished.

"What was that?" Gilbert gasped. He wasn't sure what he had felt but he knew something very odd had happened.

"I'm not sure," Rau stated. But he had the feeling that it his star had not finished its ascent suddenly. With that, he chuckled to himself.

Gilbert narrowed his eyes. He had a really bad feeling about what happened.

* * *

Over the Pacific Ocean, a massive ship floated over churning waves as it led the combined water naval fleet from Gibraltar. The three Hampton-class aircraft carriers, dozens of support ships were flanked by four Vosgulov-class carrier submarines of ZAFT. It was probably the most powerful wet fleet ever gathered in the history of the human race.

Mobilesuits and Transformers flew overhead as Whirl, Jetfire and Jetstorm taught the Strike more about his flight mode and how to get the most out of it. Murrue had decided that it would be a good training exercise for the Gundams and ASTRAYs, as they were out there also flying on improved Guuls thanks to Perceptor. He had also been seen making his own version that was less than half the size.

But they were finally reaching their destination that they had been racing towards since they had been informed of the crash of the Autobots just off Orb. The 1st Combined Fleet took up position alongside ORB's Aegis-class cruisers out away from the island as the flagship headed into a massive drydock, slicing through the waters.

As the _Archangel _backed into a massive dry-dock cage, Kira wondered if his parents would believe what he'd been through. To end up piloting a mobile suit, gaining new friends, renewing his friendship with Athrun and fighting evil robots from outer space. His mobile suit becoming sentient and able to transform into a jet was just one part of the story.

'My life has become a science fiction series,' Kira mused with a slight smile as he realized how completely crazy all that was. Kira then saw his parents at the end of the drawbridge as the rest of the human crew exited for some well deserved rest. He was glad they had survived the destruction of Heliopolis and that he had Thunderstick next to him so they had proof of his adventures.

The gold and blue Minicon looked forward to meeting Kira's parents. He just hoped they could understand how amazing the things Kira managed to do were.

Across the way, the Autobots and Strike were leaping to the service road, looking around the inside of the massive Morgenrote complex deep in the earth of the islands.

"Mom! Dad!" Kira yelled before he was pulled into a hug.

"So that's your batch proto-initiator and laser core builder?" Thunderstick asked a smile. "So when are you going to introduce to them your girlfriend?"

"I don't have a girlfriend," Kira said flustered and sounding embrassed.

"Sure you do," Thunderstick commented. "Flay's your girlfriend and Roadhauler thinks you need your cerebro module debugged and rebooted for liking her."

"I know," Kira grumbled darkly and then saw Thunderstick smirking at him.

Caridad Yamato tried to take in all her adopted son's friend had said. A memory surfaced of Kira's Birdie robot as his friend because he was wary of the other kids finding out he was a Coordinator. And then it hit her that Kira had a girlfriend.

"Hey, Flay get over here!" Thunderstick yelled. "You want to meet your boyfriend's parents don't you?"

Flay just stared at Thunderstick until Haro and Jolt started pushing her toward Kira and his parents. Flay didn't look very happy for them to be moving her. "You're a jerk, Thunderslap."

"Such a lovely couple," Thunderstick remarked with amusement. "Don't you think so?"

"Yep," Jolt said with a laugh.

"And you want them to have kids so you can teach them Cybertronian swear words," Thunderstick stated. Kira and Flay blushed at that comment.

Jolt laughed. "I'm not against that."

"Son," Kira's father managed to say. "You have very strange friends."

"I know," Kira groaned. "Trust me I am fully aware of that."

"You should have seen Kira in the battles we got into," Thunderstick spoke up. "He did stuff we didn't even know was possible and held his own against Liokaiser."

Then a shadow covered them and the Minicons gasped. Kira turned and he saw Optimus Prime. In his shock of seeing the Autobot legend that all the Autobots had talked about, he didn't notice Flay clutch onto him like he was a life preserver.

"Kira Yamato," Optimus stated. "I'd like to thank you for all your help. You truly have the spark of an Autobot."

Kira couldn't help but be moved by those words. He then tried to form the words for an intelligence response to Optimus Prime. "I...thank you sir," Kira stated. "But I honestly don't want to be fighting in this war."

"Nor do I," Optimus Prime admitted. "But we don't always get what we want and sometimes we find out what we really are on the battlefield."

Kira felt a lot of the weight this war was putting on him lifted when he heard that. He could see why the Autobots all looked up to Optimus Prime.

Flay's grip had loosened slightly at the very oddly gentle-seeming words of the most respected Autobot in existence.

Then the Minicons gasped again. A full sized white Autobot that Kira had never seen before stood next to Optimus Prime armed with a sword.

"It...it can't be!" Jolt exclaimed. "You're dead!"

"Hey, Jolt, Thunderstick," Drift stated. "Its good to see you guys again."

"We discovered Drift on a Junk Guild ship almost entirely repaired," Optimus Prime explained.

"Drift... but everyone said you're dead!" Kira yelled.

Drift smiled sadly. "Kid when you get blown to bits... _if _you're lucky they can wield you back together."

Kira didn't now what to say to that. Flay wondered why some robot could be more or less resurrected yet her father stayed dead. It was completely and utterly unfair to her and she didn't like that at all. Especially one everyone wrote off and being completely and utterly dead.

"Did you have any Minicons?" Kira asked the Autobot swordsman.

Drift shook his head. "They didn't really want me to have any," he admitted. Being a reformed Decepticon with his past classified definitely made them not want to give him a Minicon. It was something he tried to not let bother him, though it was extremely hard some days.

* * *

Garcia and the _Archangel _crew were surprised to find Jolt and Grip-Lock had assembled a Mobile Suit in a back repair bay. There were two ASTRAYs in various states of completeness and a second Strike Gundam they had begun work on. He didn't think they had enough spare parts to even attempt to do _any _of this.

Of course, he also didn't remember a chamber like this in the plans for the Archangel. Though the ship had transformed into a giant robot and beat down Liokaiser. So perhaps it was still adjusting itself somehow.

"You two have been busy," Garcia remarked. He was sure that having a non-sentient Strike available for use would take much of the sting out of the original becoming a Transformer to the OMNI brass. Even with the original having joined their navy.

"We needed a hobby and Thunderstick showed us a hidden file on the Blue Astray," Jolt said with his hand on the back of his head. "It showed some planned weapons and a few upgrades for the Astrays." Their cunning plan to upgrade to a cool bulk body had been derailed!

"Though most of them are really weird and not very useful," Grip-Lock admitted. "The dual beam sabers and blaster rifle combo they planned for the fourth Astray was the best of the bunch."

"And we had utterly no idea about the Astray project," Yzak stated. "Got to admit even if half the stuff in that file didn't work very well at least Orb is willing to be creative."

Cagalli however looked completely and utter enraged. No one was sure if it was at the Minicons for building more Astrays and a G Weapon or that no one had told her how many Astrays there were. With her also staring at the odd knees on one of the Astrays. "I _need_ to see all data and equipment lists for the ASTRAYs," she said very slowly.

"You got it," Grip-Lock said as he handed Cagalli the datatrax with all the information they had on the Astrays and their planned weapons.

Nicol wondered what they needed the belt sander and jumbo sized can of primer for. Were they supposed to be Transformer heath care products?

"Just as long as you don't let that psycho Flay drive any of these," Yzak remarked. He had this feeling that Flay was going to get herself killed in quest for revenge against a literal killing machine and that she had a few screws loose in her head.

"Definitely not something we want to have happen," Jolt faux whispered. "Maybe see if Cagali can drive the Strike II."

"Its just a stand in name," Grip-Lock interjected. "I wanted to call it the Zeta Strike Maximus."

"And the better of his two names," Jolt grumbled. Strikeblast sounded really bad.

"Nicol," Yzak commented. "Let's not ever let Grip-Lock name things. Ever."

"Agreed," Nicol said nodding his head.

* * *

Flay was on her way to a meeting with the developmental staff for the ASTRAY series. Dr. Erica Simons had wanted her input as a novice pilot of the ASTRAY series. She was just coming around the corner when she heard voices.

"Yes, the outer structure of Drift appears that it was heavily modified at one point, Lord Attha. I suppose it could be our equivilant of plastic surgey," the engineer was explaining.

The strong looking leader of ORB nodded. "Could it just be damage that was repaired?"

"The Professor did not think so. As a salvage specialist, she looks for that sort of thing. She saw a lot of repairs, but the underlying structure was different. I've got her estimation of what Drift would have looked like," Erica explained as she turned on a 3D projector.

"He looks very different. Well, send me a report and keep me abreast of any developments."

Flay suddenly realized he was going to be heading for the door, which she quickly knocked on. "Hello?"

The Prime Minister of ORB opened the door to see the young woman in an ORB uniform. "Ah, Miss Allster. Let me be the first her to offer you our condolences for the passing of your father. He always advocated a strong, peaceful relationship with our country. He will be sorely missed."

"Ah... thank you Minister Attha," she replied awkwardly.

"Ensign Allster, please come in," the blonde ASTRAY engineer called out.

Flay stepped in, taking in the 'other' face of Drift. It looked more cruel, in her eyes. In fact, it looked like a Decepticon. The fact he also had laser cannons on his forearms didn't help at all. She narrowed her eyes.

"Let's start with what you found to be hard and what does not feel natural, Ensign," Erica said as she turned off the projector.

Flay started to explain her first problems, all the time aware of the cutting edge 3D projector just like her family owned. She remembered a trick to get the last image out of it and onto a memory core. And she had some pointed questions to ask, as soon as she figured out who to ask them of.


	11. Internal Conflict

"I don't understand it, Lacus," Athrun said as he carefully inserted a diagnostic probe into the tiny body of her Pink Haro. They were sitting in the 'guest' quarters of the Archangel, which was no more than an ensign's shared quarters with its two bunks.

"Wooooowoooo!" Haro exclaimed. "Tingly!"

"He's been so energetic and fun to play with. And now he has better fingers." Lacus was smiling as her fiancee was checking out the tiny robot for the second time.

Haro then transformed to robot mode. Athrun yelped and leaped back. Haro waved happily at him.

"Does everything the Transformers touch have to do that?" Athrun yelled.

"More then meets the eye," Haro sang happily.

"That sounds like the great title for a song," Lacus stated as she considered the matter.

"Glad you're being inspired," Athrun said as he checked to see if the probe would find a spark or lasercore inside the Haro.

He found a strange object inside Haro. He made note of it as he wasn't sure if that was the laser core or the transformation cog. He also wondered what was causing everything mechanical around the Transformers to come to life. Energon was out as a possible given the Transformers used that stuff to power their technology and it didn't bring to life things across the cosmos.

Which left him wondering what the common connection could be then.

"The Transformers seem to live to make strange things happen," Athrun grumbled. Such as scare PLANT, ORB and the Earth Alliance to attempt to have some form of unity. Then again they used GINNs and mobile armors for target practice and those were the major forces of ZAFT and O.M.N.I.

The G-Weapons and Astray prototypes did the best against them and Athrun had a feeling ZAFT would soon have their own new mobile suits to keep up with everyone else.

With a frown, he sketched out the device that he had found. That must be the heart of the matter, so he'd have to check to see if any other mobilesuits were developing a 'spark'.

"Is he going to be all right?" Lacus asked worriedly.

"He's never been better, actually." Athrun patted the pink Haro on its head. "You are just going to have to keep a closer eye on him, as he's like a pet now. I don't think he's fully sentient though."

"So he's our first child?" she asked innocently seeming, only to start laughing at his expression.

* * *

Wheeljack looked at the guns for the Archangel.

"I think they could turn those guns into a bazooka for a mobile suit," Wheeljack mused. "Need a nuclear reactor or energon to work through."

Erica Simmons looked at the engineer like he was crazy. Then pondered what he said and admitted he was crazy like a fox. It would work but likely be even more fuel intensive then even the Lightwave system the Hyperions had.

After the Decepticon raid on a solar collection tower, the East Asia Federation bought the three Hyperion prototypes. Erica admitted she was a bit biased in thinking the M1 Astray was superior to the Strike Dagger and the Hyperion. Well, a lot biased when it came to the Hyperions and the G-Weapons. The Hyperions were closer to the G-Weapons, as they were looking to be a premium weapon system, not a mass production model. Still she wished the East Asia Federation luck with the Hyperions.

'Of course, if we had easy access to energon and that positron bazooka even Cyclonus could be taken out,' Erica mused. She also noticed the engineers that were following them and taking notes. The largest being Jetfire who was working to be a scientist or engineer.

Remembering his ability to merge with Jetstorm reminded Erica of a joke someone made about having the Astrays all merge to form a super robot. At the time it was considered too impractical and reduced the number of guns being used but Liokaiser and Safeguard were changing minds on the usefulness of that.

Of course the Transformers made the idea of a transforming mobile suit after the Astrays a strong possibility.

* * *

"I found one here, too!" Dearka shouted out, looking the Moebius Zero Omega. "It looks about the same size as the ones in the ASTRAYs."

Athrun was frowning, even as he looked over to his 'superior' officers. "So it appears that any mobilesuit or mobilearmor that was part of the original complement that left Artemis has a spark, though they don't look fully active."

Murrue nodded slowly even as Natarle made some notes. "The size of Archangel's spark chamber is quite large and seems to require a lot of power."

Perceptor nodded. "That is correct. Just like your nervous system control all aspects of your biology, the spark controls all aspects of the functioning of a Transformers. These units are not fully initialized and are in hibernation. In fact, I ascertain that it would require a traumatic event to activate outside of an initiator from Cybertron."

"And I've never seen anything like this," Ratchet admitted. "No sign of Vector Sigma, or the All Spark or anything else used to give life to us."

"Maybe it was Lacus's singing for all we know," Dearka said with a shrug.

"Spark Singers," Kup spoke up in sudden wonder.

"I have no idea what he's talking about," Ratchet stated when everyone looked to him and Wheeljack.

"It's a myth even older then me," Kup stated. "Long ago the original Thirteen Transformers found out that if they sang and managed to stir up the emotions of others that they could give life to the lifeless."

"That is the most insane thing I have ever heard," Athrun admitted.

"You clearly don't know much about our mythology," Ratchet remarked."There's a sect that believes Primus was born from solar energy and energon."

"The seeds of the future lie buried in the past," Kup stated.

"And you thought Lacus was popular already," Dearka said with a grin. "If that's true then she'll be bigger then the Beatles, Elvis and any other singer or band you could mention."

"And just when I thought my reports to the PLANT supreme council couldn't get weirder," Athrun grumbled. It was getting to the point where he could try to make things up just to see if they would believe him. And the sad part would be that it'd likely all make more sense then what was happening.

Murrue shook her head. "Very well. We'll keep an eye on them. Lt. Badguriel, accompany me." The captain of the ship headed out and down towards the secondary landing bay.

Chief Murdoch pulled himself out of one of the Mistrels. "Yup. It has one too, though smaller and not as developed."

"So we'll let Athrun know, right?" one of his subordinates asked.

"No, you won't. At least not immediately. Admiral Garcia mentioned something once we discovered that the other three G-Weapons did not have a spark," Murrue stated, surprising them. She had grudgingly admitted the admiral had a good point. "Murdoch, how much effort would it be to remove the spark chambers from these Mistrels and install them in them and one of the Skygraspers?"

"Uh, I wouldn't have an idea," the chief petty officer said.

"Come up with a plan and we'll try it," the captain said with a nod.

Natarle smirked at Murdoch. "If you can do this, you'll be the first human to transplant a soul. Unless you don't think you can handle it."

"I'm sure I can come up with something," he replied, rubbing his heavy, five o'clock shadow. He understood what the lieutenant had done, issuing him a challenge and had to admit it worked. "I take it you don't want to let the ZAFT guys know?"

"Let's just let them know after you've installed the last one into a new body," Murrue said in a tone that made it clear that was an order.

"Are we going to have Ms. Clyne hold more concerts?" Natarle asked Murre.

* * *

Flay started showing the picture of Drift's earlier form to the Autobots to see if anyone knew who he was. So far Jetstorm, Bumblebee, Sideswipe, Bumper and the minicons had no idea who he was. And they had totally denied her request to use their Datatrix to search for it. It was something of an order from Perceptor.

It was like it was a conspiracy to keep her ignorant. And she was sure that the muddled picture showed a Decepticon, so she did not want to go anywhere near Drift for now. Or, for that fact, any of the Autobot leadership. Of course she doubted that she could just go up to Optimus Prime and ask him questions.

Off in the distance, a voice shouted, "I'll step on you when I get out of here!"

Deathcobra she realized. A small idea had her walking in that direction, passing the guards.

"Hey! You be careful in there, he's a killer," the guard said as he backed out of the room. It was totally useless for them to be in there, but would his sergeant listen to him? He could guard from back out here in the main hold of the Archangel and call for _heavy_ backup.

"Idiot, she's an officer. Salute," his fellow guard hissed as he saluted to the ensign.

Belatedly saluting to her, he gulped. She saluted back very crisply (as Colonel Kisaka had drilled into her) and said, "Continue on."

The dark hold had been fitted with a device called a power cage that was supposed to keep even the most dangerous Transformers captured. From what she had been told, it interrupted their energon flow and made them feel very weak.

"What do you want, water-bag?" Deathcobra asked the (female?) officer.

"I want you to identify this Decepticon," Flay said as she pulled out her portable computer to project on the wall a picture of the revealed inner form of Drift.

"Deadbolt!" the green and yellow Decepticon blurted out. At least it looked like him, though they were off on the size of the cannons on his arms. Wait... Deadbolt had defected from the Decepticons ages ago. Deathcobra narrowed his optics, then widened them in feigned surprise again. That was why that bounty hunter had been here. One of the Autobots was actually the turncoat. That also explained why his friend Leozack found something amusing about this mission. "You found out about our spy?" he lied in his best shaken voice.

"Deadbolt _is_ a spy. I knew it!" Flay did not even waste a moment and ran to one of the mobilesuit and boarded it.

She was quickly changing into her flight suit right inside the cockpit when she was spotted by four Autobots.

"Oh, great. I think Flay's gone crazy again," Swerve said nastily as he started moving his red frame towards the white and gold ASTRAY she was sitting inside of. "Hey! You in there! Don't do anything stupid!"

Hot Shot just shook his head. He felt for the girl, but she was going to herself killed at this rate. "Come on, Flay, you know there's no mobilesuit practice this afternoon."

"Don't get in my way," she warned as she sealed her helmet and then closed the hatch on the ASTRAY.

The yellow and flame-decaled Autobot sighed. Here she went again.

"I'm going to kill that Decepticon spy and prove I'm a real soldier!" she snarled out, toggling her radio to the bridge. "Flay Allster, launching in ASTRAY Gold to deal with a Decepticon spy!" Explosive bolts blasted off the restraints.

"She's gone slagging nuts!" Jolt screamed out again. He was going to get stepped on by her, he just knew it.

"Hold on, Flay. What Decepticon spy?" Hot Shot called out even as he stepped between the yellow minicon and the ASTRAY mobilesuit.

"Your friend Drift is actually the Decepticon Deadbolt," she declared.

"Say _what!_" Swerve snapped out as his optics flashed brighter blue for a second. "That's a serious charge there, girl!"

"I saw the _human_ records of his repaired body. He's had some sort of full modification and Deathcobra just admitted that it was Deadbolt."

"And you believed him?" Hot Shot asked surprised Flay would believe the word of Deathcobra on anything.

"All I showed him was a picture of what Morgenrote reconstructed his appearance, dummy," Flay snapped back.

"So he has twin cannons on both arms?" the red Autobot asked, confusing Skysickle.

"How did you know that?" the girl asked as the ASTRAY took its first steps out.

"Slagging Cybertron," Swerve said in sudden shock. "She might actually be right. Deadbolt did just fall off the face of the war." Sudden anger filled his spark, as memories of Deadbolt blowing the head off a bot named Mudflap and ripped his brother Skids in half. After nearly killing Metalhawk. "Drift is that cracked reactor linkage?"

"So what are we going to do?" Hot Shot asked as even he was convinced.

"You are going to get out of my way while I stomp him flat," Flay said in an angry tone, ignoring the tingles in the control yokes of the ASTRAY.

"Girl, normally I'm a pretty laid back Transformer, but just for this, I've got your back," Swerve said as he pulled out his blaster. "Let's go punk that jerk."

"But Drift is nice," Skysickle protested. The white Autobot always enjoyed being around the Minicons. And something about this didn't seem right to the black and red Minicon.

"That's what spies do, Skysickle," Hot Shot said after a long moment. "They make you like them and then stab you in the back."

"Yeah, let's get that tricursed Unicron spawn!" Jolt shouted out as he pulled out his own blaster. "Let's go slagging jam it up his laser core!"

Flay moved up to the loading bay, triggering the sword striker, just like she had been taught. The Launcher or the Aile would be totally useless in the confines of the Morgenrote.

That was when her radio chimed, as Captain Murrue Ramius appeared on the screen. "Flay Allster, what the hell do you fucking think you are doing?" The normally mild officer was at the end of her ropes with the prissy girl.

"I've discovered a Decepticon spy within the Autobots inside of Morgenrote and I am moving to engage with Hot Shot and Swerve," she reported.

"Hey! What the scrapheap about us?" Jolt shouted out.

Murrue just looked at her in shock. Turning to the side, she called out, "Battlestations! Allster, move out. I will have your back up ready within minutes. Don't get yourself killed."

"Acknowledged. ASTRAY Gold, over and out." Flay triggered the sequence to grab the massive anti-ship sword and blasted forward out of the main port hatch. She landed on the massive piers, with two cars landing from their long jumps with squeals of burning rubber. They were in luck, as coming up the massive freight elevator were Whirl and Drift.

As Jolt flew off with them Skysickle looked and then knew what he had to do. A panel on his wrist popped up. "Skysickle to Whirl, come in Whirl."

Whirl, the light-blue wrecker sighed. He hated this part of his duties. Especially with Perceptor waist deep in some new project with Huffer and Wheeljack. So he was stuck escorting Drift around, per his parole. So the communication call from Skysickle was a welcome relief. "This is Whirl."

"Deadbolt, die!" Swerve shouted out, firing with vigor at the white the moment he transformed back into his robot mode. Hot Shot and the ASTRAY were right behind him. "That was for Mudflap! And this is for Skids," he roared out, firing his blaster with intense anger.

"What!" Drift shouted out as several blasts hit him and smashing him back into the wall.

"FLAY'S GONE NUTS AND IS ACCUSING DRIFT OF BEING SOME DECEPTICON NAMED DEADBOLT!" the red and black minicon screamed through the communication implant. "SHE'S GOING TO KILL HIM!"

"Um, got that. Ah, slag it. This is not what I needed," Whirl complained and moved to intercept them. "Guys-"

"Die, Decepticon!" Flay shouted out, triggering the thrusters to leap towards the prone white Transformer. A spasm from electricity sparking in her control caused her to twitch in slightly the wrong direction. The ASTRAYs knee slammed into Whirl's face, even as she tried to bring the pointed tip of the anti-ship sword and stab into Drift's torso if he had not just rolled out of the way.

Massive alarms were sounding, even as red light flashed throughout the hidden Morgenrote base. Inside the Archangel, Deathcobra was smiling nastily. If this had been a true Autobot ship, his escape attempt would have no chance. But in a primitive alien ship? The dampening cage probably was not as well constructed. And he was no weakling. With a roar, he slammed into the glowing bars. Shaking his head, he got back up after falling to the ground. He could feel the bars overloading.

In a hanger that had been converted over to a meeting room for Autobots and the humans, Optimus Prime looked up at the alarm. "Mirage, get a status update. Prime Minister Athha, I think our meeting will need to be postponed."

He and his daughter nodded, even as Colonel Kisaka was talking into a headphone to find out what was going on.

"Roger, Prime!" Mirage transformed into his sports car alt-mode and squealed out the door.

"Back off, Swerve!" Whirl shouted.

"Get the mechabreak out of my way, Wrecker! This is Autobot business!" the red autobot shouted right back, shoulder blocking him to get him out of the way. He immediately started firing at the white Transformer that had managed to get to his feet and was blocking the ASTRAY's massive sword with consummate skill.

Drift then surprised Flay as he fired an emerald burst of energy out of his sword and right into the face of Astray Gold. He then slammed his sword down on the larger mobilesuit's wrist, forcing it to drop the antiship sword. "You need skill to use a sword, kid!"

"Burn!" Hot Shot shouted out, activating his plasma-thrower and hosing down the white swordmaster. "You won't kill any more of my friends!"

How in Primus's name had they found out about his sordid past, Drift wondered even as he ducked behind the lumbering mobilesuit. "Hey, it's not like that! I'm a changed Transformer!"

Flay was somehow feeling the effects of that blast to her mobilesuit's head. Shaking off the pain, she launched the Sword Striker's shield at Drift and cracked his armor. "Just die, Decepticon!" she screamed out, eyes wild and dilated as she descended into a berserker state; her emotions overflowing within her heart.

And the ASTRAY responded, its nascent spark suddenly coming to life as lines of energon glowed brilliantly along its outer surface.

"Oh, Primus! What the hell is it with these humans?" Whirl exclaimed even as he started firing at the white and gold _glowing_ ASTRAY mobilesuit. "Swerve! Hot Shot! Drift is not a Decepticon spy!"

"So you are saying he's not Deadbolt?" the red Autobot called back, even as he kept moving and shooting at the battered white target.

"Yes! I mean no, he's not Deadbolt anymore!" the Wrecker shouted. "Ah, slag it! WRECK AND RULE!" He charged and body-tackled Swerve right through a lifting crane.

Jetstorm came streaking up the elevator shaft in jet form, only to see that Autobot was fighting Autobot, without a sign of Decepticons anywhere. "What's going on?"

A smaller red and black helicopter was hovering over the battle. "Flay's gone crazy and accused Drift of being some Decepticon named Deadbolt! And Swerve and Hot Shot believed her!" Skysickle shouted.

The same, small-sized orange form of Jolt called out, "Exactly! It's a mass fight!"

Hotshot suddenly found himself wrapped in a ball and cord. The cord tightened as Bulkhead tried to restrain him. It was useful to be bigger and a lot stronger than most of the other Transformers.

So he was shocked when the gold and white ASTRAY stepped over and grabbed the cord and then pulled him off his feet and slammed him into Whirl. Dimly, the new sentience realized that the yellow and red Transformers were on its side.

That was when a massive red cargo hauler suddenly appeared to ram through the battlefield, knocking Whirl, Swerve, Hot Shot, Drift and the ASTRAY over in a show of strength. Optimus Prime transformed even as the ASTRAY got back to its feet. "Autobots, stand _down!_" he shouted out.

All Flay saw was red. Red anger. Red hate! And a red Transformer that was going to get in her way of killing a Decepticon! "_DIE!_" she shouted in an odd dual-voice as the ASTRAY charged forward and punched the Transformer leader, sending him staggering back three steps.

"I said-" Optimus Prime shouted out, "STAND DOWN!" He charged Flay's mobilesuit, sidestepping a blistering punch like it was standing still and wound up a double-punch right into the white and gold mobilesuit's gut, sending it through one of the armored walls.

"So that's why they call him Optimus Prime!" Jetstorm said in an awed voice as he transformed into his humanoid mode.

That was when a massive explosion rocked the open port bay of the _Archangel_ as the green Decepticon finished firing his blasters as he flew out in his alt-mode of an attack helicopter. "So long, entropy suckers!" he shouted.

"Deathcobra! So this was his plan somehow," Windcharger said as he surveyed the situation. "Magnetic fields to full power!" Waves of force reached out for the Decepticon, but only made him swerve off to the side and pour on the power. All it did was knock him low over the white armor of the _Archangel's_ top side.

Deathcobra laughed at the attempt by Windcharger to get him. That was when Mirage appeared out of thin air, blasting him right in the cockpit and knocking off his main rotor to send him skidding across the unforgiving armor of the battlecarrier.

"Hey all, can't let this Decepticon escape now can we?" the white and dark-blue Autobot called out even as Deathcobra transformed with a groan.

Just in time for Jetstorm to land on him feet first. "Stay down, you dumb Decepticon!" the young Autobot called out.

The wall crumpled even as the incredibly battered form of the white and gold ASTRAY climbed back out of the hole Optimus Prime had made with it. Looking around, it realized that the fight must be over. "Uh, now what?" it asked.

Inside, blood seeped from a head wound from Flay's cracked helmet as she laid slumped over at the controls, held up only by the crash harness web.


	12. Drums of War

"Perceptor, you're being too finicky. It's a space bridge, it's already got redundancy in the design," Huffer called out, complaining about the too picky scientist. The assembled Space Bridge loomed overhead in its new, underground home.

"Accurate design mitigates energy usage by at least a factor of 10 %," the dark blue Transformer scientist said in an almost scolding tone.

"More like 12 %," Bulkhead spoke up.

"Can we increase that?" Jetfire asked curiously as he watched his elders work on the massive device, assembling it from local parts. Human scientists were assisting, helping set up the many sub-systems and power conduits.

Erica Simons had wandered down, as a couple of the A-1 ASTRAYs had been drafted to work on the project, using their large size and strength in a non-combat setting to give her pilots much needed practice. Everything was being recorded in the hope that someday, they could build their own bridges.

Lowe Guele sat in a wheelchair and looked extremely bored. He was the Junk Guild liason for Project Outreach and frankly rather be playing around with the guts of a mobile suit or helping with the _Ark _salvage operation. Sure ripping open portals in space to travel to other worlds was an amazing idea, but listening to the Autobots bicker over how to build it was extremely dull.

That was when Rachet came crashing through the massive armored door that led to the main part of Morgenrote. "Guys, there's some sort of fight going on. Swerve and that crazy Allster girl are trying to kill Drift."

"For Cybertron's sake!" Huffer grumbled. "Why haven't they sent that girl to a place like Torkulon?"

Perceptor was thinking fast and furious. It appeared someone had penetrated Drift's new identity. "Autobots, move out," he ordered.

"Ah man," Lowe grumbled. "Now I'll miss out on the action." He then sighed. "C-10."

"You sunk my battleship," A.I. 8 cried out petulantly.

* * *

Admiral Garcia stepped out of an elevator into the massive underground wet-dock beneath the island of ORB. "Well, that's not something you see every day," he said blandly to his staff lieutenant, Michelle Barnaby and to Lt. Commander Murrue Ramius as he surveyed all of the damage. Cranes were knocked over with holes blasted in the side of walls. Smoke issued from the port bay of the _Archangel_.

He had just returned on an express sub-orbital flight from Heaven's Base where he had been meeting with his superiors. Murrue was barely finishing briefing him on the fight between allies on the way down the elevator.

"We were getting some real muddled reports on the flight over," Lt. Barnaby stated as she shook her head.

"It _is_ muddled. But I fully backed Ensign Allster. And from what I've gotten out of Hot Shot and Swerve, it appears that she thought she had uncovered a spy within the Autobots _inside _Morgenrote. I can't fault her for acting immediately on such a security issue," Murrue stated. "From Whirl's statement (which was mostly swearing) he was not given the chance to respond."

"Clearly the Wreckers after-action reports are not written by Whirl," Garcia remarked. Though he had to admit given he got into a fight with fellows over a cross between someone in witness protection and being on parole, he probably was justified in being somewhat angry. Still the only person he could fault (so far) for the whole mess was Deathcobra.

True, Deathcobra had lied about Drift being a spy, but with all the other additional information Flay had gotten from Swerve and Hot Shot she had probable cause to suspect him of being up to something. And she showed initiative to deal with what she thought was huge security risk.

Even if it was all so Deathcobra could make a failed prison break and now they had a new transformer on their hands. Garcia took a moment to study the white and gold ASTRAY that was being coaxed into opening her cockpit by Rachet and Perceptor. From what he had heard, Flay had not responded at all since the attack had ended.

'You get called away for a little while and everything goes crazy,' Garcia mused. At least the Strike Daggers were entering full production. In fact, the first shipment of Cyberium armor would delivered here to Morgenrote within a few days.

There was a great deal of tension in the air as Hot Shot glared at Drift, who stood there polishing his sword. The green Minicon Skysickle did the glaring at Hot Shot for Drift while Jolt was trying to play peacemaker between the pair.

Jetstorm shook his head as he watched, as he was outside the dynamics of that team of Autobots.

"Admiral," Strike (or rather Tri-Strike as he would like to be known) said respectfully. Each of his upper arms showed his single gold stripe of an ensign.

"Ah, Garcia," Whirl spoke up. "So can I light the fire?"

"I beg your pardon?" the newly promoted admiral asked.

"You know, for Flay. Isn't she going to get burned to death like you do with witches?"

"She is a very young and junior officer who was tricked into her actions. Actually, she showed iniative and will in acting immediately against a perceived threat. Those are valued qualities of a officer," Garcia started to explain. He was going to go on to explain what sort of action he _was_ going to take on her, as she did react a little too abruptly without bringing in her superiors.

"_WHAT!_ Are you slagging insane? She nearly killed him!" Whirl shouted out as his servos groaned as Drift and Jetstorm had to hold him back to keep him from doing anything. The entire time Whirl's knife was extending and retracting from his hand.

Tri-Strike hoped he'd be fast enough if Whirl attacked Garcia.

Whirl finally managed to slip out of the grasp and Tri-Strike got between Garcia and the enraged Wrecker. While the Earthly Transformer did not like Flay that much, he thought Whirl was right over the top right now.

"If she ever puts the lives of my team mates in danger again I will kill her myself!" Whirl growled with a dark timber.

"And I'll help you do that," Downshift stated leaning against a wall. "I believe there's a human statement that applies to this. Three strikes and you're out."

Tri-Strike put his hands on his hips, where his Armored Schnieders were located.

"Autobot Whirl..." Murrue asked ominously. "Do you normally threaten allies and issue ultimatiums to their command?"

"Usually they don't try to get me killed in the crossfire of their vendettas," Whirl snapped at her. "By the Great Smelter I am really tired of her slag!"

"I just think we need to direct her at the Decepticons," Jetstorm commented quickly to try and defuse this before it turned into a fight. "Before she makes an even bigger mess here." Besides, he could understand her driving force that sent her to try and kill the Decepticons. After all, he was not too dissimilar.

"Admiral Garcia," Downshift stated harshly. "Flay Allster is on very thin ice with us. Every time she gets into a mobile suit she causes trouble and now it seems like you are rewarding her for it. This better not be some ploy to play with Kira's heart strings."

"Ensign Yamato's personal life is not involved with this at all," Garcia stated very clearly, anger starting to tint his words. "Ensign Allster has shown to be a promising officer and volunteered to fight on her own."

"And like, Grimlock is a pain in the fan belt off it," Whirl commented snarkily.

"The same Grimlock that is a major leader of your Autobots? Or did you threaten to kill him to keep him in line?" Murrue snapped out.

"You have obviously never met Grimlock or you would not say that. _You _need to reign her in," Downshift ordered Garcia in an angry tone. "The incidents she is causing are getting worse and worse."

"Are you dictacting to me, Autobot?" Admiral Gerard Garcia asked, causing his aide to wince. Flay Allster was one of his officers, that made her one of their own. He might be a total bastard to people not under him at times, but he had a very strong _esprit de corps_.

"Downshift, that is enough" Optimus Prime said as he and Lord Athha came back into the devestated dock. It appears he had misjudged how important it was to get back to negotiating with Prime Minister Athha. He had just overheard the latest part of that conversation. "That is not how we deal with our allies. That path would make us no better than the Decepticons. This coversation is now over until both sides can cool off."

Whirl glared at Optimus Prime for a long moment. "Fine. I'm done with this scrap heap." He shrugged off Drift and Downshift and started to walk off.

"As long as they don't start something," Drift remarked with a whine, energon sparks leaking from his battered torso.

"I'm going to be watching you," Hot Shot snarled.

"Just as long as you keep it watching," the white ex-Decepticon said in a slow tone that hinted at sadness. He had thought Hot Shot was a friend.

Garcia wondered if Drift staying dead would have kept him from having to deal with this mess.

"Hot Shot," Optimus Prime ordered. "I need to speak with you and Swerve in private."

Whirl smirked as he knew Hot Shot and Swerve were not going to be getting medals for their actions with Flay. He just hoped it would not breed more resentment given they didn't need that slag right now. 'If ever,' the blue Wrecker mused.

"Whirl, go blow of some steam before I talk to _you._"

The Wrecker winced at that, as it appeared the Autobot leader was _also_ not pleased with him. "Whatever."

"Optiums Prime, if you could set aside some time for a meeting, I would appreciate it," Admiral Garcia called out. "We definitely need to work closer to avoid future problems."

The blue and red Autobot nodded grudgingly. None of his team leaders had fine praise for the human, but he had to admit the man was a leader cut from a very different cloth.

Rachet had finally convinced the new Transformer to open her pilot's hatch, allowing Mu La Flaga and a medic to enter the cockpit, which felt _very_ funny to her. Of course, funny isn't a word that could be used when they saw Flay.

"Hand me a neck brace and get a stretcher! She's alive, but in serious condition!" the medic called out.

"Hang tough, kid. You don't deserve your hard life," Mu said sadly as he looked at the unconscious girl hanging from her crash harness. Blood was seeping out of her cracked face-plate of her helmet.

Jetstorm realized what Kira was going to do when he found out about this and hoped Optimus Prime would send him somewhere safe until Kira cooled down. Like the other side of the galaxy.

* * *

In a slightly pricy restaruant called Dini's Kira had gotten together with his friends, unaware of the trouble back at base. Lacus pretty much invited herself and Athrun went along with her. Before the Transformers Kira would be nervious about having Athrun meet his friends. Now it pretty much was that as long as you could fit in the door, they'd at least try to have small talk with you.

"This is getting way too dangerous," Kuzzey said to his friend Sai. "And they said we could leave if we wanted to. So I think I'm opting out."

Sai nodded. "I am as well." After all, staying around Flay was just driving a dagger into his shattered heart.

"Well given your working on Transformers tech I'm sure you can write your own ticket with any electronics firm."

"You think you have it bad?" Athrun grumbled. "I'm one that got stuck writing reports on this stuff."

"And you've managed to avoid being requested to seek psychatric help?" Tolle asked as he thought over going back to civilian life.

"I'm as surprised as you are about that," Athrun replied with a grin.

"You got to be kidding me," Kuzzey said as he saw a news report on a TV.

"What is..." Kira said and gasped as footage of a group formed to ban the Transformers from the solar system protested in Washington D.C.. For some reason they called themselves the Circuit Breakers. The news reporter noted that one of the main leaders had been part of Blue Cosmos.

"Really?" Athrun remarked as he watched the news. "They honestly think Galvatron will do anything but shoot them for even suggesting the idea?"

"They are avoiding the fact that many of the N-Jammers are gone because of the Transformers," Sai noted. "Or that our conflict as slammed to a halt because of them."

Athrun was glad Yzak and Dearka didn't involve themselves in this social gathering or they might have harshly disagreed with that statement. Though he had to admit he thought he'd seen Yzak giving Miriallia some interesting glances. Which showed hormones didn't hold Coordinator or Natural in any regard.

"And this is going to get bigger," Kira said before realizing he should not have said that. There would a panic once word got out.

"What do you mean bigger?" Miriallia asked in a worried tone.

"More Decepticon ships are coming," Kira replied. "That's why the _Ark_ came to the solar system."

"Coming from the sky above and there's nothing you can do," Haro spoke up.

"You mean even more Decepticons are coming here?" Tolle gasped. The ones they already had were bad enough.

"That is correct," Athrun said shaking his head. "Kira, I know you want to keep them informed but you don't have to spill your guts."

Kira remembered the lessons he'd gotten on keeping quiet on military secrets. "Sorry." Though he doubted it'd be secret much longer. Not when the production of mobile suits, weapons, and ships had skyrocketed. He hoped he'd be able to protect everyone in the middle of the escallation of war. Things were getting nasty.

* * *

"This is getting ludicrous..." was all the head of LOGOS/Blue Cosmos, Muruta Arzael, could say. A really good singer could in the presence of Transformers give _life _to machines? And for a group that wanted war to keep themselves in money, they now found their world was going to be the front lines of an impossibley old interstellar conflict.

Not through force of arms, but due to their singers being a resource to birth armies. Though their mobilesuits could fight Transformers as well. If anything could scare most of them it was that the Transformers would destroy their world. Bruno Azrael found the war with the Decepticons profitable but worrying.

After all the money he was making won't be worth anything to him if he was dead.

"If this is true," Lord Djibril stated, one of the other higher ranked members of Blue Cosmos considered aloud. "Then we need to hold a global singing contest with Autobots as judges or VIPs. Along with getting our extended troops in 105 Strikes. And let the European Federation have their Combat Coordinators."

"What about... them?" Captain Summerfield asked.

"As soon as our 'guests' are fixed and fitted with tracking systems and bombs in their heads we're going to use them as well," Muruta ordered. "We will make sure it's on fronts the Autobots won't be at."

"And the Autobots?" Elaidia Ulars asked.

"We need to recruit those Autobots Wheeljack and Perceptor to help improve our mobile suits at Heaven's Base," Muruta demanded. If the Autobot engineer was going to be giving out free ideas for weapons then LOGOS needed him around their scientists and weapon designers. He might even be able to make the lightwave barrier and other energy needy systems more affordable.

The true power behind the Atlantic Federation then pondered what ambassador to send to the Autobots. What he needed was an idealistic pawn. Then it hit him. Ambassador Thi Dang would work perfectly for that. She was young, idealistic, and would put forth the sort of public face they needed. And she wasn't a member of LOGOS or Blue Cosmos so they couldn't use her to find them.

* * *

A week later...

Kira was spending his time were he usually did when he wasn't busy. He was at Flay's side.

"And you want to know what scares me," Yzak commented. He'd ended up in the sickbay after he slipped while rock climbing. It wasn't very far but managed to hurt himself.

"And that is?" Kira asked.

"Optimus Prime is the nice leader. I'm not sure want to think about what the other guy does."

"I learned when he says stand down you do it," Flay sighed. She was sitting in one of the medicals bay bed. Her head was swathed in bandages where they had to carefully piece glue part of her skull together. Another bandage covered her left cheek where a shard of 'shatter-proof' glass had cut her badly.

"You show her Whirl's after action report Kira?" Yzak asked with an amused look. "I think we all learned how to swear like Transformers from that."

"I didn't think she wanted to know Whirl hates her," Kira remarked.

"I honestly don't think Flay here cares."

Flay nodded carefully. "I don't." She was barred from active duty from a week except for emergencies.

Kira looked uneasy at that as he ran his hand through his brown hair. He'd gotten access to the Wreckers: Declassified logs written by Fistitron and read some of them. There were only two groups of Decepticons that had survived as rivals of the Wreckers. The others like Destrongers or the Malignus were very, very dead. The Crimson Shooting Star had literally had his spark ripped out by Impactor.  
Kira had to admit to himself that Flay liked to live life dangerously. A part of him actually liked that.

"The big question is are you done messing around in a mobile suit?" Yzak asked in a dead serious tone.

"Those are not toys Flay and you better respect them."

"I wasn't messing around the second time," Flay growled.

* * *

"Astrotrain... I thought you told me you had destroyed Optimus Prime?" Galvatron asked the Decepticon that had joined him and his crew on the _Revenge_. "So what _exactly_ is that?" He pointed his finger at a 3D video screen from his throne showing Optimus Prime talking with some of the repugnant flesh-bags of this world in some meeting hall. He had thought the war had turned after the _Revenge_ had seen the Autobot ship crash.

"That should not have been possible for him to survive!" the newly branded Decepticon exclaimed.

"By Xal, can anything kill Optimus Prime!" Scourge gasped.

"We'll see if the Mayhem Attack Squad can," Galvatron stated as he drummed his purple and gray fingers on his throne's arms.

Leozak grumbled low enough that no one would be able to understand him. Galvatron had ordered him to fill in the empty socket in his group. So Hellbat was getting his old slot back. He _hated_ that damn coward. Having to work with him on the bridge of the _Revenge_ was bad enough.

That was when the _Revenge's_ sensors picked up the transponder codes for General Strika's ship, the _Obsidian Blade_, as it exited hyperspace. The massive ship was actually not that dangerous... by itself, but what it carried could change the course of battles.

A com window opened. "Lord Galvatron, I have arrived. With the Autobots being trapped on this mudball, I have devised a simple plan to crush them. I will assemble a Space Bridge here in orbit. We shall quickly press the attack to Optimus Prime and the remaining Autobots from several bases, then return our reinforcements back to their homes before they can be counter-attacked." Strika's cruel features showed her mirth at the idea. Then she could use the remaining supplies to start Cyber-forming this world into another work of art.

"Ah, a Rush and Crush. Usually your plans are more long term and strategic." Galvatron nodded as he considered. "The natives may try to resist, but their ships are quite inferior." Well, except for that tri-glitched Supreme, he quietly admitted to himself.

"By your command then, Galvatron?"

"Of course," Galvatron ordered. "And have Bludgeon sent over to the Revenge."

"As you command Lord Galvatron," Strika stated. "Decepticons Forever!"

"Decepticons forever," Galvatron said with an evil smile.

* * *

The alarms were blaring aboard the _Archangel_ and deep within the Morgenrote base as video screens on its bridge and CiC activated, showing a menacing sight.

Bumblebee had been in the starboard launching bay of the Archangel, being shown around by Hot Shot and Jolt. "What's that?"

"The alarm to come to battlestations," the bright yellow and flame-painted Hot Shot noted. He flipped open a small panel on his arm. "Hot Shot to the bridge, what's going on?"

"We're getting a sensor feed about a huge ship up in orbit that it starting to assemble a giant-sized version of Project Outreach," Murre called out. "Hot Shot, I think we need to talk with Optimus Prime and Perceptor as soon as possible." She flicked off that circuit, looking over to her right where her XO Natarle Badguriel was studying the sensors over a non-com's shoulder. "What do you have so far?"

"The alarms just triggered themselves, captain. I've never even heard of a hyperspace-shadow sensor, but it's showing up that huge ship in orbit and its Decepticons," the black-haired woman called out.

That was when Admiral Garcia entered the bridge. "What is going on?" Ratings and non-commissioned officers were rushing to their seats and activating their control panels as the marine called out his entrance. "As you were."

"A new Decepticon ship has appeared in orbit. It appears to be disembarking and assembling a giant scale Space Bridge, sir." Murrue was glad that most of the crew was back from leave.

In the port docking bay, Mu popped the lid of his Moebius Zero Omega and doffed a special helmet. "Looks like we will have to cancel our attempt to awaken my old ride," he called out.

"Lt. Commander, we are going to head to our mobilesuits just in case we are needed," Athrun called out, even as he took off after the rest of his group. Kira rushed waved as he rushed behind them towards the pilots training room.

The massive freight elevator from the deeper section of Morgenrote, where Project Outreach was situated, was crowded with Autobots. Optimus Prime led the way with almost every single Autobot except for the ones involved in recovering equipment and supplies from the _Ark_. "So you are sure, Perceptor?" the prime asked.

"This unit calculates that General Strika will assemble the Space Bridge within eighteen hours, leaving us in a tactically inferior position," the monotoned-voice scientist explained.

"Slag that, Perceptor. We'll smash that Space Bridge of theirs first," Sideswipe declared as they tromped over to the _Archangel _as requested.

"And how exactly are we going to get there?" Whirl asked. "The Ark's shuttles will get blown out of the sky and I'm not sure after a certain human's utter insanity, I doubt they'll let use one of their ships to get there."

"I agree with Ensign Allster's assessment in theory," Prowl stated. "However I would have requested you to stun Drift with your null ray module and explored Drift's actions, then asked for statements from the rest of the Steel Haven crew. And of course call in Optimus."

Drift scowled but then shrugged it off. He always knew that this might happen. He did have a lot of sparks to atone for.

"Glad at least someone can be rational," Whirl muttered.

"This human is rational like that," Admiral Garcia said sardonically as he stepped out a hatch onto a second floor catwalk, which put him shoulder level to most Autobots. "The _Archangel_ would be more than happy to host you as we counter-attack the Decepticons in orbit." At his side stood Murrue and Natarle, with Mu La Flaga in his flight suit. "But attacking them two to one odds is going to be hard."

Cagalli and Kisaki ran up, huffing from their short trip from the surface. "Then you'll apreciate that you will have backup. ORB has offered the use of battleship _Kusangi _in defense of our world. We will also be willing to host any Autobots willing to fight."

Optimus Prime nodded. While these humans were not like the Autobots, they were fierce in the defense of the world. "Thank you. And I may have an idea that will help stack the odds. Jetfire... Jetstorm, this is right up your alley. Perceptor, contact Vignas Altair. I want the Aerialbots here ASAP. Prepare a shuttle. We are recovering the _Steel Haven_."

"And pray to Primus it doesn't end up in pieces," Swerve grumbled. Seriously everything but the _Revenge_ had been trashed when they got near Earth.


	13. Anvil and a Hard Place

The _Archangel_ taxied into the waters of the Pacific as it prepared to launch into space. Large add-ons for extra fuel to help get into orbit were attached.

"Ready positron cannon and lifters to full power," Murrue ordered. Admiral Garcia moved from behind her to sit in a chair, as they were about to accelerate greatly.

Out on the miles-long, magnetic linear accelerator, a shuttle was being set up for launch. Lacus Clyne looked over and out the port hole of the shuttle as she had planned this just in time to see the launch. "Be safe, my fiance."

Power was rumbling up to full capacity within the Archangel as both positron cannons prepared to fire.

"Positron cannons are fully charged, captain," Natarle Badguriel called out from below in the CiC where she was in charge.

"Fire one and two!" she called out.

Massive positron beams scythed through the atmosphere, punching a path with polarized particles that the Archangel's lifters and thrusters used to rocket higher and higher into the air.

"Shuttle 508-10 en-route to the PLANTS is ready to launch," the pilot of the shuttle called out.

The shuttle launched down the take-off runway, magnetic forces accelerating it faster and faster. Finally at the end of the ramp it was forced to curve up and into the sky. All of the passengers were very briefly subjected to about seven gravities. They passed the _Archangel _quickly, but it would slowly and steadily catch up.

Behind the shuttle, Safeguard in its double-sized, cybertronian jet form was wheeled into place as a cobbled together set of new boosters was attached, making it an impromptu two-stage rocket.

"I'm still not sure of this plan," Safeguard complained to anyone that listened. Even if it had been crafted by Optimus Prime, they were still the ones this all depended upon. Pulling its double-gestalt mind back on track, it radioed the control tower. "Control, this is Safeguard. Ready to launch. Requesting non-limited acceleration per the request of ORB Navy."

"You are cleared. All interlocks are off and acceleration is up to full power."

Energy crackled across the Linear Accelerator as a great deal more power was prepared to be unleashed than the launch of the shuttle. With a crack, Safeguard was shot down the rails with the full force of one-hundred and fifty gravities. Usually this was only used for solid cargo pods, but without any biological worries of infirmity, Safeguard could handle this easily.

Cybertronian thrusters, pulled from the first test rockets that ORB had been developing, flared and adding their own considerable power. The dual-colored jet flew off the end of the Linear Accelerator at escape velocity, still thundering loudly and faster into the sky. Safeguard passed the _Archangel _in thirty seconds and the PLANT bound shuttle fifteen seconds later.

The forward edge of the Transformer was heating up considerably, plasma flickering into existence even as the air thinned out.

Off in the distance, he knew that one of the _Ark's_ shuttles was probably being attacked by the the _Revenge_ as it had tried to make a dash to Jupiter.

"Lord Galvatron, we are detecting another launch from the Autobot island that is using Cybertronian technology," Scourge called out as they continued to fire at the Autobot shuttle in front of them. "What ever it is, it is very very fast."

The purple battleship continued to fire blasters and missiles at the fleeing shuttle.

"Finish off this Autobot and we'll move to intercept them," Galvatron declared confidently.

Leozack looked at the acceleration curve. "I've never seen a surface launch with such speed. Galvatron, unless we break off the attack on this shuttle right now, we will not be able to intercept this new launch."

"What sort of monster are they making these days?" Hellbat asked in worry. "I've never seen anything accelerate so fast!"

Galvatron, the purple and gray titan of terror, frowned. "Launch Astrotrain. Tell him to destroy the new target or consider his enlistment into the Decepticons to be at an end. Send a couple of Sweeps with him."

That new Decepticon was not happy when that was related to him by the gleeful Hellbat. "I got it," he told the communication officer. Quickly transforming into his shuttle form, he rocketed after the Autobot launch. Behind him, two of the general army Sweeps followed him, though they were not quite as quick.

The _Archangel _was just hitting the edge of the atmosphere. Murrue sat up more straight under the three gravities of acceleration. "Open Port and Starboard launch bays. Prepare to launch Silverbolt and Air Raid. Then cycle through the rest of the Aerialbots as quickly as possible. Remind them again, they are to intercept any Decepticons going after Safeguard.

Out in space, just skimming the debris field, Safeguard ejected the booster rockets, but kept the core of fuel and energon storage unit even as a group of cybertronian jets rocketed towards Astrotrain's squad in a diamond formation. The white Silverbolt was at the center of the group.

"What? Who the slag are these guys?" the triple-changer complained.

"Bad news. These are the Aerialbots! Where did they come from?" the Scourge called Flail asked.

"Aren't they supposed to be at Sigma Minor?"

"Could be worse," another Sweep grumbled. "It could be the Dinobots."

"Aerialbots! Attack!" the larger, white and center Autobot called out, then started blasting away at the three Decepticons.

Astrotrain was forced to break off his interception, only dimly aware that he was being _forced _to.

Galvatron, on the other hand, saw Optimus Prime's hand in this. This was a feint to draw their attention. The real question was... for what? There was no way even with Wheeljack that the _Ark_ was to be in usable shape to fight the Revenge and that new Supreme won't be enough. Then it hit him. They were going for the _Steel Haven_!

True it only had the firepower of a light cruiser but at the moment it was one of the few options the Autobots had.

Galvatron smashed his right fist down on the arm of his throne, breaking off the right hand rest. "We've been duped. They are after the _Steel Haven_. And, loathe as I am to admit it, Astrotrain and his forces are not going to be able to defeat the Aerialbots. Send him recall orders."

* * *

The white, blue and orange form of Safeguard soared over the frost covered form of _Steel Haven_. With a quick transformation to humanoid form and one punch, he cleared a hatch near the bridge.

His eyes then glowed and transmitted the access codes so Teletran Four would not attack him. "Oh, yeah. That's the ticket."

The large Autobot suddenly transformed into two separate, smaller Autobots. "Come on, Jetstorm! We needed to get Steel Haven back to Earth as soon as possible! The Archangel won't be able to last against the Revenge without more support."

"Right! Right!" the red and white twin called out as they ran into the bridge and started to bring the Autobot ship back to life.

"Teletran Four on-line," a deep voice stated.

"Huh, thought it was pronounced Teletron," Jetstorm muttered as he worked. He also checked to see if anyone was in the Cryonic Regeneration Chamber or the repair bay. No such luck and Jetstorm hoped they'd have someone since they needed all the firepower they could get for this.

The Energon fueled engines came to life and the cybertroid alloy that it was made of contained the raw power. The ammonia ice on the ship started to melt and the Steel Haven started to get some lift.

"Now are we sure that Soundwave isn't among the Cons?" Jetstorm asked.

"Given he's busy as head of communications on New Kaon and won't be called away for this, then yes I am," Jetfire stated.

Jetstorm nodded and pressed a few buttons. "Bah-weep-Graaaaagnah wheep ni ni bong. This is _Steel Haven_ to _Archangel_, come in _Archangel_."

"This the _Archangel_... what on earth was that?"

"Oh that's just the universal greeting," Jetstorm said in an amused tone. "I'd use the universal dance but this only audio."

"Right..." Autobots were all insane, Natarle thought to herself.

"Would you really do that?" Jetfire asked surprised that Jetstorm even knew of the universal dance then anything else.

"If I had enough room to do it," Jetstorm laughed. "Seriously can you image some human doing that in front of a Fantoman giant?"

"Aren't they called Zentsomething or other?" Jetfire asked.

Jetstorm nodded.

"Just not sure why they feel that at 60 feet their hips and such won't work for organic beings," Jetfire remarked.

"Who knows," Jetstorm remarked with a shrug.

"Let's just hope we get there in time," Jetfire said softly.

* * *

Weapons fire flashed across space and the _Obsidian Blade_ shuddered under the assault it was taking. It seemed like a coordinated assault. However to Strika she noticed some differences. Two of the factions were dead set on destroying the Space Bridge while the third was out to take it for their own.

To the right side of Strika's command chair was Bludgeon. The follower of the mythical Ultimate Warrior always disturbed Strika. In her long life, even by Transformers standards, she had not seen anything to validate the worship of Primus, Xal, the All Spark, or the Ultimate Warrior. Mysticism like that frankly confused her. Yet somehow it worked for the cold and merciless Decepticon warrior.

Now the mostly green Venom standing at her other side she understood. He was a paranoid, power hungry being that hated being second in command. Yet in all his time leading the Insecticons his own paranoid nature was a bigger threat to his power then anything his underlings had every attempted.

Strika wondered whatever happened to Bombshell, Shrapnel and Kickback for a nanoclick. Not that it honestly mattered much. Though it did seem odd they just disappeared with none the wiser.

"What do you command, General of Destruction?" Bludgeon asked in a harsh growl.

"For the moment," Strika stated, "only Shockblast will engage in this battle. We will let Devastator and Liokaiser deal with these human's Guardians."

Venom said nothing but his blood red visor glowed for a moment.

Outside mobile suits and mobile armors were launched at the massive space bridge. This was the trial by fire for the Strike Daggers.

In one of them was the 'Biologic CPU', Sven Cal Payang. His mission was to gain first hand intelligence and combat information for Blue Cosmos. The ensign found it slightly ironic that he wished to view the stars when he was young and it seemed those peaceful night skies were filled with giant robots.

Sven was driven from his musings as same Transformers that had raided a solar tower for fuel opened fire on his mobile suit.

The Sweeps on the other hand were a bit worried, as the local ships that were launching the big Guardians in some numbers. Already there were at least twenty of the troublesome 'Strikes' out there, though they did look a bit different. A small fleet of ships had gathered behind them to support it, though they were nothing compared to the firepower of the _Revenge_ or _Obsidian Blade_ were putting out.

The Biologic CPU hissed in frustration as he barely avoided being cut in half like his wingman as the much larger motley-colored Liokaiser slammed into the front line with his sword. The Strike Dagger exploded right over the scream of its pilot. The gestalt was being careful, avoiding the large cannons of the Archangel and the Tri-Strike.

"Autobots! We must press on!" Optimus Prime called out from where he was leading the his warriors to stand on the outer hull of the battleship-carrier. They were letting loose a massive wave of blaster fire.

"He's just too fast now," Tri-Strike complained as he tried to blast him with the Launcher Striker. The massive 320mm hyper-impulse cannon 'Agni' just could not track him fast enough.

"Shoot Devastator, he's not wary of your blasts," the rust-red Ironhide shouted out as he continued to fire.

The Gundam nodded as he trained the weapon. But the green gestalt was still moving just a little too fast as he killed Strike Daggers and damaged Autobots.

The Aerialbots combined to counter Liokaiser, but they were not used to his fighting style and were on the defensive.

Suddenly, Tri-Strike had an idea. "Transform!" he shouted, ratcheting loudly into a new form of a quad-treaded super-heavy tank. The 350mm hyper-impulse cannon suddenly fired and hit Devastator in chest.

The Autobots all cheered for a long moment before a truly bright shot screamed out of the darkness as Superion was blasted by Shockblast using full power to his primary weapon.

Tri-Strike turned his turrets and opened fire on the psychotic Decepticon. Which was followed up by one of the M1 ASTRAYs opening fire on Shockblast with with a heavy ion cannon. Juri Wu Nien dodged Shockblast's counter attack and saw the Red ASTRAY gut what they called a Seeker with her sword.

Suddenly Juri's ASTRAY was rocked by missile fire as what looked like a civilian shuttle with a massive missile launcher attached to it transformed and literally punched her mobile suit in the face. The ASTRAY shook violently and her sensors got fuzzy. Through the static Juri saw Whirl slash the Decepticon in the optics and blast him in the chest.

Then a massive blast hit the Space Bridge as Athrun cut loose with the Aegis's 580mm multiphase 'scylla' cannon, blowing a hole clear through one part.

"It is time," Galvatron called out as he took the top lift of the _Revenge_ to the surface armor. The were now entrenched deep enough in his two ship's crossfire. "Decepticons... Eradicate them!" With that, he transformed into his cannon mode. A hum started to build within him.

Strika nodded her gray and silver head, red eyes glowing happily. "The signal is set. Let loose the Brigade, Bludgeon. Venom, make sure to bring me back one of the local's guardians. I wish to study them for weaknesses."

"Yes, general!" Bludgeon called out, almost leaking excitement.

From all over the _Obsidian Blade_ hatches opened as hundreds of new Decepticons joined the battle.

The withering fire took out three ASTRAYs in the first wave of blaster fire and sent Bumblebee and Ironhide into stasis lock. Explosions rocked the other surface of the Archangel while two Drake-class destroyers shuddered and then exploded as their light armor gave out under onslaught.

"By the All Spark..." Huffer said in an awed voice. "Strika brought her entire construction brigade." That was almost a thousand Decepticons. They had stupidly just attacked a far superior force head on! And then he saw who was leading the Decepticon's charge.

It was Bludgeon and the Mayhem Attack Squad!

Bludgeon was a green and orange specter of death and moved faster then even most coordinators could follow. His blade soon was covered in crystallizing oils and blood. His skull looking head only added to his frightening image as he cut a path of destruction to the Archangel. He was blasted at with a stress fracture rifle, yet was able to use his dagger to take the brunt of the attack. Aurum had the sinking feeling she once again has picked the worst Transformer to fight. The former Gold ASTRAY was about to loose her head when a massive battle-axe stopped Bludgeon's odachi looking sword.

Aurum was shocked that her savior was none other then Optimus Prime.

"Go!" Prime ordered. "I'll hold Bludgeon off."

"Yes, Prime," Bludgeon sneered. "Show that heroic nonsense you are so infamous for!"

The whine within Galvatron had grown to an immense degree, rattling the deck of the _Revenge _as space itself was warping and bending. That was when the _Steel Haven_ came streaking into the battle, firing everything it had at the much nastier battlecruiser. That just barely knocked the blinding, white-purple beam off course so that it only sheered off the sensor tower of the _Archangel's_ bridge and ripped out the side of an Earth Alliance Bernard-class battleship behind the lead ship.

"Here we come to save the day!" Jetfire called out.

"Holy cyber nodes! I think we just stopped Galvatron from destroying the Archangel," Jetstorm exclaimed.

And how Galvatron looked angered as he resumed his robotic form. "Destroy them!" he screamed.

Onboard the _Archangel _the klaxons of damage alerts filled the air in the bridge.

"Sensors are down to 50 % coverage. We are down to 25 % range and blind on the starboard side," Natarle called out from the CiC below the bridge.

"Signal Optimus Prime, we need to regroup and plan a counter attack," Admiral Garcia called out.

"I'm not sure we can retreat and survive, sir." Murrue was looking at him over her shoulder when she felt a tingle at her fingertips again. "Wait. I may have a solution."

Devestator and Liokaizer were smacking Superion between them, sending the Aerialbot gestalt to smash into the foreleg of the damaged battleship-carrier.

"That Supreme must have been a last ditch- effort?" Liokaizer was saying as the massive white ship started to transform again. "Oh slag."

Inside the bridge, Murrue had her eyes closed as she gripped the hand-grips of her seat. Her entire mind was focused on awakening the latent power of her ship. Energy crackled over her arms, burning the skin. She grit her teeth against the pain.

The four-hundred meter leviathan had awoke again. "Archangel Supreme... active. Initiating combat."

Devestator looked up... and up. "That's as big as Metroplex! Sparking jinxed reactor cores!"

"Terminating the enemy!" the huge figure stated even as it backhanded Devestator through an undamaged sector of the spacebridge. Then the newest Supreme had a sword appear in it's hands and shoved the blade into the Space Bridge to the hilt.

The _Revenge _spun and rocketed of to the side of the side of Archangel Supreme, firing a full phalanx of missiles into its blind side. That sent the Supreme staggering with a groan of pain.

Optimus Prime had locked weapons with Bludgeon. Behind him he heard a scream as three Decepticons of the Mayhem Attack Squad ganged up on the Buster Gundam.

"Help me!" Dearka shouted, his fear activating the newly installed Spark Core of his gundam, just before Smash Dock jammed his glowing energon spear through his cockpit.

The new Transformer awoke confused and in pain before Ebon Hammer smashed down with his gravitic hammer and shattered his torso just moments after his birth.

"We're dying out here!" Yzak shouted as his shield arm of his Gundam Duel was chopped off by a heat sword from a brutish looking black and green Decepticon with a massive missile launcher on his back.

The purple ASTRAY piloted by Mu hit the Duel's opponent just before he could be finished off with a massive shoulder block. The heat sword slammed home on his purple ASTRAY, ripping out part of its shoulder and removing his head before Yzak could jam his beam saber into the Decepticon's head.

ZAFT GINNs were little better than cannon-fodder, though they would take an occasional Decepticon down with them. An entire squad of mobilearmors was already wiped out from the Earth Alliance.

"Autobots! Retreat!" Optimus called out. "_Steel Haven_, we need to evacuate!"

Archangel Surpreme pulled out his sword and and his various cannons started to glow.

"Move!" Hot Shot ordered to every Autobot, Mobilesuit and Mobilearmor. The Supreme unloaded his firepower on the horde of Decepticons. Large numbers of Decepticons were battered or blown up by the barrage of firepower.

The huge Supreme lunged forward and chopped the nose portion of the _Revenge _off and got five more missiles in his face for his efforts. Finally, he decided to transform and head out. He was starting to feel lethargic as he had burned through half of his energy reserves already. "Transform."

The _Archangel _rocketed off with Autobots and mobilesuits clinging to it even as the damage Earth Alliance battlecruiser limped off under the escort of two Nazca-class ZAFT cruisers.

"Decepticons! Cheer! For we have won a great battle! Let loose our might for the power of the Decepticons is unstoppable!" Galvatron shouted. That would distract them from chasing after Optimus Prime and his Autobots. His foe was canny enough to do a quick counter-attack if he left the bridge undefended. "Strika! Get that spacebridge repaired and finished."

The Emperor of Destruction smiled, his purple eyes glowing in satisfaction. There was no way that the Autobots could win now.

* * *

Shockblast watched the reconstruction of the orbital Space Bridge in complete and utter boredom. The only reason he wasn't shooting at the construction workers to make them move faster or the debris humans had in orbit was that Bludgeon promised to rip out his spark if he made trouble. They were rather low on workers, after all.

It only barely got the psychotic Decepticon to restrain himself for now.

Overcast looked at Shockblast in laser satellite mode and worked even faster. Then suddenly he was hit with an energy blast from nowhere and sent flying through space. The light purple Seeker tried to see who shot him with his massive monocole eye. The weapons fire was almost as powerful as Shockblast's attack and he couldn't see anyone who could have attacked him. Then he saw nothing more as a second blast blew his head and most of his torso up.

"And that's how you do it," Cliffjumper said to Tri-Strike on the top of the cloaked _Archangel_. Cliffjumper was showing the new transformer how to be an effective sniper. And the red Autobot had to admit that Orb sniper rifle for the ASTRAYs was very nice.

"I see, sir," Tri-Strike stated.

"Don't call me, sir," Cliffjumper causally remarked. "I work for a living." He had been watching some of the human's video entertainment. Which some of it was great. No wonder the Junkions liked it.

On the bridge, Murrue looked worried at this plan. Hiding nearly on top of the space bridge and having them snipe the Decepticon workers to slow them down could go horribly wrong.

"Don't worry," Roadhauler spoke up when he saw the captain's expression. "Shockblast is a maniac with a few wires put in wrong. A few stray blasts can always be written off as him blasting slag to amuse himself."

That Roadhauler didn't make a reference to Flay when he said that was proof that the red minicon could be professional in the middle of an operation.

'Primus, please let Whirl and Flay manage to keep from killing each other on this mission,' Roadhauler silently prayed. He was then shocked to see Flay come onto the bridge.

"I thought you'd be out there," Roadhauler said in shock.

"I'm only human," Flay remarked as she touched her bandaged head. "I can't just be put back together and go out and fight." In fact, she had almost been left behind on Earth due to the stresses of orbital take off.

"Right," Roadhauler muttered.

The tension on the bridge was cut by Grip-Lock. "I'd feel safer if we finished that second Strike before this."

"We all would," Murrue muttered softly. A week just wasn't enough to for them to build the missing parts to complete the Strike II. Nor would they be able to assemble it fast enough now.

In the mobile suit bay Kira hoped this mobile suit won't come alive on him. Morgenrote had designed the purple ASTRAY with an eye at getting their hands on the Mirage Colliod and for close quarters combat. It had two beam sabers, an armor piercing sword and weird 'claw shoes' as everyone called them that came down from the knee to cover the feet of the mobile suit.

Kira hoped it be a better fit for him than the Green ASTRAY had been in the last battle. If only it had been then maybe...

Kira shook his head. He couldn't save everyone no matter what mobile suit he had.

"I wonder if a Sentai fan was involved in the color scheme theme for the naming of the ASTRAY prototypes," Mu La Flaga mused out loud.

"It won't surprise me," Kira remarked. "Half surprised my ASTRAY lacks extendable swords or knives like Sideswipe or Whirl."

"I don't think anyone had figured out how to do that yet," Mu stated. "I do hope this is the last of the ASTRAY prototypes."

"Yeah otherwise Cagalli is going to be annoyed. And they were running out of colors. I mean what was next a neon-orange ASTRAY?"

Mu chuckled at that. The rumor mill had it that Cagalli _was_ extremely unhappy about being sent to get all the ASTRAYs but wasn't told how many there were and about the hidden file of weapons development, upgrade suggestions and more that was on the Blue ASTRAY. La Flaga could imagine Cagalli screaming so loud that they could hear her in JOSH-A.

'And some of those weapons were really out there,' Mu thought to himself. The main weapon for the Green ASTRAY was a blaster that could also be used as a dual beam saber. He wasn't quite sure if that would work so he opted for a blaster rifle had been provided glass grenades for the grenade launcher. Given they allowed Lockdown to literally drive through the hull of Artemis station Mu figured they'd be very useful.

Mu then looked at his beloved Moebius Zero Omega and felt that would be a better choice then a just repaired mobilesuit that he still wasn't sure had the controls completely learned well enough for combat.

"You guys ready?" Bulkhead asked as he checked his wrist mounted weapons.

"As I can be," Kira admitted. "At least Flay didn't ask me if everything would be alright."

"I consider it being her getting smart enough to realize that when the Decepticons are involved just surviving is a good thing," Athrun remarked stoically. "And hopefully we won't have our Mobile Suits turn into Transformers again."

"Yeah that's getting a bit crazy," Mu stated. "Your fiancee didn't sing to these."

"Glad she's not here for this," Kira said relieved. He had honestly liked Lacus a lot. She was kind, nice and Kira had a feeling she was more then just a pretty face. He wondered if he should try to talk his friend into having a traditional wedding. Being the best man and them having a good time sounded like an excellent idea. Blue Cosmos might complain but most of them now hid under their beds as the boogeyman they feared turned out to be a lot less scary compared to the Decepticons.

Kira considered it really odd but amusing that due to the Transformers he was getting a lot less flack about being a coordinator and he might have a girlfriend out of this. Kira's expression soured a bit as he realized some of his friends really didn't like Flay much. And he wasn't sure exactly how to tell Sai about any of that.

"You're thinking about her again aren't you?" Athrun said sounding a bit exasperated. "Seriously Kira, we all know you like Flay." Athrun then rubbed where Flay had smacked him a few weeks ago. That girl had one hell of an arm on her.

"Of course, given she's offically in ORB's armed forces and you're technically in the Atlantic Federation Navy, there's no prohibition of a relationship," Mu said seriously before grinning. "Just be careful, okay?"

"Though that wound looks like it'll scar," Athrun stated. "So be prepared to have to bolster her self esteem for a while." Plastic surgery would have to wait until a larger break in the fights and at a major hospital. And given that was 'shatter proof' glass that caused that after being hit by Prime's fists...well Athrun was going to honor any command the Autobot leader gave.

"You mean you can't just get her a new face plate and fix it up with a sander and bit of primer?" Bulkhead asked shocked.

"We can't just swap out our body parts Bulkhead," Mu said firmly. "There's a lot of factors for internal organs to be transplanted and those are easier then the sort of changes you suggested."

"Oh, so that's what Whirl meant when he said they couldn't replace Flay's hard drive."

Kira took a deep breath. He honestly wondered how Flay could keep on annoying Transformers. Even as head over heels in love with her as he was couldn't cover the fact she had a lot of personality clashes with them.

Drift was watching the Decepticons off in the distance as he stood in the shadow of a piece of the Debris Belt.

Kira narrowed his eyes as he looked at the ex-Decepticon. He had no idea what to make of the former Decepticon. He knew that Drift had killed Autobots before changing sides and the purple-eyed Coordinator wasn't sure if he could have the strength of character to change sides in the middle of a war.

Everyone was wary around Drift, Autobot or human after finding out about his past. The only exceptions to that were Skysickle, Kup, Perceptor, Whirl and Optimus Prime.

No one wanted to admit that they were under the gun here, as it was only three more days before the Decepticons finished their spacebridge. And the Wreckers, who this sort of thing was their bread and butter, where already busy on a mission in Quintesson space.

"Admiral," Kup said with his cyger in his mouth. "Looks like you're about to witness history." He was in the main repair bay where they were putting the last repairs on the Autobots and Mobilesuits. The acrid stench of welding filled the room.

"Oh?" Garcia asked.

"We're getting together a second team of Wreckers to deal with the Space Bridge," Whirl said sounding excited. "Kup, Perceptor, Drift, Bulkhead and myself."

Garcia went over the group in his mind and noticed most of them were the only people to trust Drift. And Bulkhead was a gentle and rather trusting giant. And would know what to smash to really mess up the Space Bridge to buy them a lot of time if not completely destroy it.

"I'm hurt that I wasn't invited to the party," Mirage said as he suddenly appeared next to Whirl.

"I can see why you picked Mirage as your name in English," Garcia grumbled. He wondered if that cloaking ability had the same possibilities as the Mirage Colliod.

"Its fitting," Mirage admitted.

Garcia ignored that. "Can you pull off stopping the opening of that space bridge?"

"With Perceptor and Bulkhead's intimate knowledge of Space Bridges, plus Bulkhead's ability to break things we should be able to give them one slagging huge repair bill." Whirl proclaimed.

* * *

Strika frowned as she saw the reinforced fleet attacking again. The Supreme was back in the middle in its spaceship form, even as dozens of mobilesuits and Autobots poured out. The _Steel Haven_ was flanked by two of those weak destroyers as the repaired Earth Alliance battleship and ZAFT cruisers filled out the vanguard. Shaking her head, she could easily see this was a distraction. She turned to a floating video panel. "It looks like he is attempting subterfuge, just as you expected Lord Galvatron."

"Of course he is. Even with local allies, he has no chance of seriously defeating our forces," the Decepticon leader noted in a condescending tone. "He will likely strike at the power core of the space bridge. Make sure to capture or kill them all. Galvatron out."

"Whirl is with them," Bludgeon stated behind Strika. The Decepticon general hadn't heard any noise and was shocked for him to be there. If he wanted to Bludgeon could have cut her head off before she knew what had happened.

"And that honestly matters?" Strika asked trying to keep her calm.

"He was a poor student," Bludgeon stated like that explained everything.

"Deal with him," Strika ordered. "Capture them or kill them, whatever strikes your mood."

"I shall," Bludgeon said with his skeleton face forming something that passed for an amused expression. He then stepped into the shadows and vanished.

"Slagging martial artists," Strika muttered. "They're all completely glitched."

* * *

Mirage liked the flying disks that Perceptor had modified for this mission. They had been modified with the Mirage Colliod technology of the humans and Perceptor had found they could disrupt and control computer systems. Using them they were able to get past the early warning systems and onto the space bridge.

"The power core should be this way," Perceptor stated as he lifted a grate. Whirl paused for a moment.

"Hey Kup, doesn't this remind of that mess in the Casval system?" Whirl asked with narrowed optics.

Kup nodded. "That it does, lad. Mirage go invisible and Bulkhead you take point."

The passage was only barely big enough for Bulkhead to fit through. The dark gray service tunnel had no lighting and felt like a tomb for the Autobots. Drift clutched his sword tightly as something felt very,very wrong to him. Mirage flickered and then disappeared.

Out in space, the _Archangel _shuddered under the near explosion of missiles as they streaked in from the _Revenge _and some defense platforms that Strika had emplaced. The chain CWIS kept up their silent chatter as they took out each wave.

"Come on! You guys aren't so tough!" Yzak shouted out in anger as he two-shooted an unwary Decepticon. "Man, they haven't even stopped work on assembling the damn spacebridge!" He only needed a couple hundred more Decepticon deaths to pay back for Dearka's death.

"Slagging pain in the aft," Aurum agreed as she shattered a few Decepticons with a shield bash, then jammed a beam saber into another.

While Athrun cut through the Decepticon forces like a grim reaper with his beam sabers.

"Hey, is that... yodeling?" Kira asked in confusion as he heard something over the comm signals.

A black and orange Decepticon shot Aurum in the face while laughing like a complete and utter maniac. Duel Gundam grabbed him by the head and crushed it like it was made out of cardboard.

Then suddenly a massive piece of space debris slammed into the surface of the space bridge. Then came a rain of more pieces trying to slam into the gateway to the rest of the universe. Wheeljack really did not like doing this but they didn't have a lot of options available to them. The Decepticon workers outside started to destroy the smaller pieces while Shockblast transformed into his cannon mode to take out the larger pieces.

The Red ASTRAY was shooting Air Master and Wingstun with a blaster while the Kusanagi opened fire on Space Bridge.

Downshift blasted a Con trying to sneak up on Wheeljack with his shoulder mounted missiles.

"Keep focused, Wheeljack," Downshift stated forcefully.

The Autobot scientist nodded and had his spark go cold when he realized he hadn't seen or heard anything about Bludgeon and the Mayhem Attack Squad.

Deep inside the Space Bridge, the Wreckers forced a slate gray door open and saw the heart of the ship.

To a human the power core of the Space bridge would look like a b-movie mad scientist's lab merged with a power plant. It was filled with devices that glowed, large knobs to control various devices and had a very spooky atmosphere.

Optics scanned the room in a variety of spectrums as the Autobots knew they weren't alone. Still they had a job to do.

"Bulkhead, you do your best to disable the Space Bridge controls," Kup ordered. "Perceptor scramble their software to the point even Shockwave won't be able to fix it!"

It was only by reflexive instinct that Drift blocked Bludgeon's sword as he attacked from a shadow.

Bludgeon looked at the former Decepticon with an expression similar to respect. "Impressive."

"I don't slagging care," Drift commented as he kicked Bludgeon in the leg. Bludgeon's malice filled laughter at that unnerved Drift.

Kup looked worried and dodged being cut in half by Venom's axe. The blue Autobot fired several acid pellets at the emerald Insecticon. The smell of melting metal and Venom's scream of pain filled the air so Kup knew at least one of his shots hit him.

Whirl cut Ebon Hammer's arm off and beat with his own hammer. The Decepticon's optics shattered as Whirl tried to flatten the warrior's head. Smash Dock looked worried as Whirl threw Ebon Hammer's namesake weapon at him. He managed to dodge and ran into the blast of Whirl's laser pistol.

The ring of fire that Sunstorm threw around Whirl didn't stop him. And while Smash Dock was focused on Whirl, Bulkhead's wrecking ball flew through his chest like it wasn't even there. Chopshop while he took Ebonhammer's weapon looked shocked at Bulkhead managing to sneak up on anyone.

Then Chopshot slammed into the ground as Mirage grabbed the back off the thieving Insecticon's head and introduced him to the floor.

Perceptor ignored the fighting while he attempted to break through the firewalls of the spacebridge. He then noticed something reflected on one of the monitors and barely avoided being bitten by a giant spider.

The Transformer sized spider transformed into a form that a male human or Transformer might find sexy and entrancing. Perceptor honestly didn't care either way. He simply opened fire on Blackarchnia.

"Do you treat all femmes like that?" Blackchrnia asked in amusement. "Besides, these controls have been frozen out. Nothing you can do here will stop us!"

Perceptor didn't bother to respond to her taunts and electrified the surface of the control unit that the deadly Decepticon femme was standing on. She screamed in pain as lightning arced across her body.

Drift slammed into her and the two sent a shower of glass and metal crashed through the control systems.

"Was he a worthy foe?" Ransack asked Bludgeon.

"Tolerable," Bludgeon admitted and that was high praise from the Decepticon martial artist.

"Thanks a lot," Blackarchnia grumbled as she rose from the damaged controls.

Bludgeon ignored her and struck what seemed to be empty air and suddenly there was a loud clank as Mirage's arm fell to the ground. Mirage clutched the stump bleeding energon and looked at Bludgeon with a shocked expression.

Then at high speeds Bludgeon charged across the room and sent Whirl into a wall with a jump kick. Bulkhead charged at Bludgeon but ended up trampling over Ebon Hammer and slamming into Sunstorm as Bludgeon effortlessly leaped over him. The bright yellow Seeker groaned in pain and glared at his leader.

Barrage charged at Kup and got a kick to the face for his troubles. The yellow and green Decepticon didn't let that stop him as he slashed the cerulean Autobot with his yellow energon dagger.

That was when massive gears started to rotate, turbines whirles up to full speed and energy started to crackle across the systems.

"No," Whirl exclaimed as he looked over at a console. In the Transformer's language, it stated...

-SIGNAL ACCEPTED-

-SPACEBRIDGE ACTIVATING-

Out in space the Autobots groaned as energy started to coalesce in between the massive tines of the spacebridge. Spinning energy formed around a bubble of blackness, deeper black than the depths of space even as lightning crackled across the bubble.

On the bridge of the _Revenge_, Galvatron started to laugh in malicious glee. "Forward! Destroy Optimus Prime!"

"Optimus, we have to retreat!" Hot Shot shouted out even as he blasted yet another Sweep, sending it crashing into the armored flank of the _Steel Haven_. A blast from his plasma flame-thrower set it on fire.

"We can not! We have to believe they can stop it," the blue and red Autobot leader declared. 'Come on, Perceptor! We're counting on you.' His battle-axe sliced out, chopping the side of a passing Sweep. He then spun around and fired his heavy blaster rifle at three more Decepticons. Behin him three Moebius mobilearmors were destroyed by a single Decepticon that had transformed into whirling throwing-star with energon blades.

"Is this the end?" Kira wondered to himself. The purple ASTRAY fired to quick shots from his beam pistols, then quickly activated the built in beam saber to try to swipe at a spiny purple and black Decepticon. It only managed to score some minor damage. "This mobilesuit is too slow."

On the bridge of the Archangel, Admiral Garcia ordered, "We can not let them bring more of their army here. Captain, you are authorized to use all capabilities to destroy that spacebridge."

Murrue looked over to her control screen. "Natarle, we need to divert all power to both positron cannons. Order the _Kasunagi_ to prepare to fire a combined positron salvo at the main power junction of the Spacebridge. Prepare to fire nuclear armed sledge-hammers on my command."

"That's just Prime," Grip-Lock grumbled. "I'm going to... wait is that what I think it is?"

All the Autobots and humans were filled with dread... then astonishment when a blue, red and silver ship flew out of it and opened fire with two massive chain guns and a laser cannon on the Decepticon forces. Star-bright spheres were dropping out the back in rapid fire.

On board the _Skyfire_ Grimlock sat on a throne like Captain's chair. "The energon mines launched, Snarl?"

"Yes," Snarl replied curtly as he examined the placement. Right on top of the spacebridge portal. He smiled nastily.

Massive flashes of light were seen through the spacebridge dimensional rift. Some where powerful enough to make the SpaceBridge shake. On the spacebridge, Kup grabbed Mirage's severed arm and made ran for it. He then transformed and burned rubber with the arm secured to his cargo area.

"That doesn't look like a Decepticon ship with those colors," Roadhauler stated from where he was standing near the front window of the _Archangel's_ bridge. "Is that the Dinobots' ship? The _Skyfire_?"

"There goes the neighborhood," Grip-Lock remarked. That didn't fill Murrue and Garcia with confidence. And the various other things the Autobots had said about the Dinobots from time to time didn't help matters.

Mirage grabbed onto Whirl's VTOL mode with his remaining arm and they took off as well.

"We've driven off the Autobots!" Sunstorm cheered. Bludgeon backhanded him and the Mayhem Attack Squad also made a break for it.

The Wreckers managed to get to their flying disks and gunned it in what would later be called a cinematic display as the Space bridge exploded within seconds after they took off.

"Well that feels like old times," Whirl said happily. Bulkhead and Drift looked at him like he was a maniac.

"If this is what the Wreckers do then I don't want any part of this," Bulkhead stated forcefully. "Once was enough."

"Agreed," Perceptor nodded. Besides, they had failed their objective. This was none of their doing.

"No such thing as a routine Wreckers mission," Whirl smirked. "Well at least doesn't involve a lot of explosions."

The _Skyfire_ flew past them as it opened fire on the _Obsidian Blade_. The more agile Autobot ship was ripping into the Decepticon transport vessel.

"So Grimlock saved our afts," Kup remarked. "You lads been telling them all about the Dinobots?"

"Oh yeah, " Whirl remarked. "They don't quite believe us on how huge pains in the diodes they are yet."

"After we get back can someone make sure to keep the Dinobots from finishing me off?" Drift asked. "I kind of like to not be assaulted again by someone."


	14. Friends Like These

The mood was somber after the battle. Nicol had this odd feeling Dearka shouldn't have died. He couldn't explain it but he had this feeling everything had changed because of that. And Whirl telling them about dealing with the killers didn't really make him feel better. It didn't help that the Dinobots were extremely rude and seemed to think Admiral Garcia was some unruly pet to an Autobot.

"You think Flay and Grimlock will kill each other?' Yzak asked which got Nicol out of his thoughts.

"I doubt it," Nicol said honestly.

"Hi, guys," Swoop said with a bemused grin as the big Autobot tromped up.

"Hello Swoop," Nicol replied. Swoop was the one Dinobot most people got along with. How he managed to put up with the other Dinobots was a question everyone asked.

They saw Perceptor and Wheeljack putting an improved Aile Striker pack on the Purple Astray. The propulsion systems of the unit were moved to the shoulders to increase the mobility for the mobile suit. It also had a pair of antiship swords added around the hips. The hope was to make the unit fast enough for Kira.

"Wow," Yzak commented. "He gets all the best toys."

"I think Tri-Strike got a pair of those first," Swoop remarked. Yzak snorted.

"If you told me a few months ago that I'd be hanging out with giant robots from space fighting other giant robots I'd say you were crazy," Athrun stated with amusement. "Now it's pretty much normal."

"Lacus asked you to update all her Haros to well... Mr. Pink?" Kira asked.

"I don't think I could do it. We still can't make a Spark Chamber," the red jacket responded. "One upgraded like that is enough."

"One of them at all is more then enough," Roadhauler remarked with a shudder. "Still at least it didn't talk in rhyme like this bot we used to work with. "

"That had to get annoying fast," Yzak said while shaking his head.

"Flashdrive tried to fix his vocal circuits,' the red minicon smirked. "Wheelie was left speaking in Luxan battle operas."

"Was that any better?" Kira asked.

"Barely," Swoop noted with a chuckle. "And glad to know why he started talking like that."

"If you're done," Perceptor stated in his usual tone. "We're ready to test the Shield Striker."

The group looked and saw a gold shield on the striker pack.

"Isn't that a laser proof shield like the Red Astray uses?" Nicol asked. The shield's ability to take energy weapon already had hit the rumor mill after Cagalli was able to stop a shot from Shockblast with it.

Kira leaped into the air and made his way to the cockpit for the Purple Astray. A quick check showed everything was in working order. He just hoped the modified and upgraded pack would give him the speed he needed.

"This is Kira Yamato and we are ready for testing," Kira said as he powered up the Astray.

"ASTRAY is cleared to launch and good luck," Murrue stated on the bridge.

The purple ASTRAY handled much more to Kira's taste as it launched into space for the next hour. He then used the upgraded thrusters and found he could fly sideways now. And managed to avoid hitting a huge chunk of debris by braking.

Kira then had the thrusters change position and poured on the power. Several screens in the cockpit went red as the frame of the Astray couldn't take the near full power of the thrusters.

"Amazing," Kira gasped as he cut power to the thrusters. The Autobots had outdone themselves with this Striker Pack.

Kira flew back to the Archangel at a more sedate pace and he saw repair crews working on the ship.

After a quick flight around the ship he returned to the launch bay.

"Kira," Athrun stated grimly as soon as the purple eyed coordinator was on the floor. "Flay's bandage over her cheek came off while you were out."

Kira winced. If that scar was anywhere near as bad as he imagined then Flay had flipped out.

"Any idea where she could be?" Kira asked in a worried voice.

"She hasn't left the ship, however she found somewhere to hide," Athrun replied in a calming voice. "Though she screamed about being ugly and ran off in tears."

"Good luck getting her to calm down," Roadhauler commented and raised his hands. "I'll stay here. I doubt she'd want to see me right now."

Kira doubted that Flay would ever want to see Roadhauler. At all.

The first place Kira went was to his quarters to change when he heard crying. He opened the door and the only source of light was the hallway behind him. Flay turned away so Kira won't see her face.

"Go away!" Flay pleaded. But her being here... that had to mean she really wanted to see him somehow.

"No," Kira said as he entered the room. "I'm not leaving you." He set Birdie loose so it could fly, which it did by ducking out into the hallway.

The answer shocked Flay. "But I'm revolting to look at! I'm so useless. There's no way I can help against the... Decepticons!" Tears were streaming down her hidden face. "I'm too pathetic."

"I don't care Flay," Kira said softly. "I...I love you." He knelt down next to the bed she was sitting on to enfold her in his gentle grasp.

Flay went completely silent for several minutes and that worried Kira. Was she going to say something? Did he scare her stiff? The purple eyed coordinator then gathered up his courage and kissed Flay. He got a glimpse of Flay's scar and put his arms around Flay to comfort her. He felt hot tears on his face and he wasn't sure if they were his or Flay's.

With an abruptness that was shocking, she started kissing him back. She was running her hands along his back for a long minute, then started to unbutton his shirt, popping of one of them in her haste.

It was a primal need that demanded the most basic of life.

* * *

"So in the first incidence, we do find the defendant guilty of instigating a murderous attack even though he did know that a ceasefire was going into effect and against his superiors wishes," the judge pronounced. The gavel came down in a clack of wood on wood.

Rau's trial had been almost a joke in how short it was. He'd been thrown under a bus for politics. He had everything going his way until the Transformers showed up and got everyone to stop trying to kill each other and worry about giant alien robots doing it to them.

'It was all those living abominations fault,' Rau mentally snarled mentally. The clone of Al Da Flaga stood up behind his table, startling his 'defense' lawyer who was sitting right next to him.

"Death to humanity and their world of endless desires! And damn the Transformers to whatever nether realm they believe in!" Rau bellowed. "Let the universe burn!"

The crowded courtroom exploded into shock and pandemonium. Most thought it was a last second attempt to get a not-guilty plea due to insanity and Rau missed his calling as an actor.

Patrick Zala finally realized how insane his ally was though. This was the true face of the genetic abomination. As much has he hated naturals for taking his wife away from him, he didn't want everyone dead. He wasn't nihilistic like Rau. Then everyone got a chill down their spine and Rau broke out of his hand cuffs.

Rau swiped a gun from one of the guards during the shocked moment and opened fire on the judge and his 'jury of peers'. He was a blur, even to other Coordinators as he charged over to Patrick Zala. He would make sure his 'ally' would not leave this room alive.

Then a wall was shattered as a motor cycle came through it. Shards of metal and plaster were sent flying everywhere.

"Hop on," the motorcycle ordered.

Rau jumped onto the bike and they heard the engine roar and fire spew out of the exhaust pipes. There was another crash and the sound of the bike driving off.

And a feeling of dread that things had just gotten far, far worse then before.

While Rau drove across the colony at high speed and avoided fire from DINNs and VTOLs sent after him with an almost supernatural grace. Then he appeared to go to "warp speed" to his pursuers and vanished. Space and time seemed to bend to Sideways' power, as rainbow reflections of starlight flickered at the edge of Rau's vision. His laughter as he escaped haunted those who had heard it.

In front of him, he saw a flicker of something appear in front of him. It looked almost like some armored head, with horns all crafted of cruelty, stygian iron and malice. It was only as they approached that Rau realized that if it were a head... it would fit a giant the size of a planet.

The being seemed to be smiling at Rau.

"My Lord I have found a being that will make a very useful servant," Sideways stated as he bowed before his master. "He has a heart that should be yours. He wishes the destruction of everything, after all."

A dark chuckle filled space and Rau started to glow. The clone felt better then ever had in his life as his body turned from flesh and blood to metal.

"Behold... Nemesis Prime!" Unicron rumbled in a voice that shook the very aether as Rau now looked like an obsidian and perverse copy of an Optimus Prime. He had laser blasters on his wrists and if he was like the Optimus Prime Sideways was thinking of, he could merge with his trailer to be MS sized.

'This is even better then the original Nemesis Prime was,' Sideways mused. 'That one was just made from the darker impulses of that Prime...and destroyed by the original fairly easily.'

"Everything shall become part of the Void master," Nemesis Prime said in a voice that conveyed the absolute cold of the deepest space.

"And you shall start with the traitor Galvatron and his army. Let no one stand in your way. While you plan the downfall of Galvatron, you will take the Matrix of Autobot Leadership from the cooling remains of Optimus Prime." Unicron's cruel optics flared in power.

"My master, he will need an army," Sideways said in a soft, reverent tone.

"Silence! My ignominious state does not currently allow me to create Sparks." In fact, he never could, but it is never good for a god to admit weaknesses. "Take these Null Sparks. Infect the angry, the dispossessed and the mad. Make them into a new army that only owes loyalty to Unicron of the Last Days!"

Purple sparks of stars flashed from Unicron's eyes to slam into Nemesis Prime's chest, causing him to scream in agony.

"Now go! Lest I destroy you!" the mad god of destruction ordered.

* * *

"This had better be good, General Strika," Galvatron said as he stomped into the cluttered repair bay of the _Obsidian Blade. _The much diminished Demolition Brigade was busy restoring the ships to full functionality, but both ships were battered. It would be a month before they were fully combat capable. His purple and gray metal fist clenched in anger. Always Optimus Prime and his pathetic Autbots snatched victory from his hands.

"It is Lord Galvatron," Strika stated respectfully. "The fallen Guardian had a spark. An implanted spark." The shattered remains of the Buster Gundam laid out on the table with light on above it.

"It all begins to makes sense," Galvatron whispered. "Prime's is attempting to double his forces and using these humans and their guardians to do so."

"We likely stumbled into something Grimlock had planned," Strika remarked as she thought over her long time foes past accomplishments. "He would use such a tactic especially with a race as war-like as humanity."

"And if you had not stripped your garrison to such a low defense, Grimlock could not have over run it and then launched his attack upon us through our _own _spacebridge," Galvatron snarled. "Or did you think that I would not see that information? That he came from your planet?"

"My lord?" the Decepticon femme asked in sudden worry.

The much larger Decepticon suddenly grabbed her by the neck. With incomparable ease, he lifted her off her feet, her neck servos straining under the great pressure he exerted. "This is your last mistake, Strika. Fail me so utterly again and my throne will have a new back."

"Yes, Lord Galvatron! Of course," the silver and gray Decepticon replied, her voice cracking in terror.

With casual, contemptuous power, he flung her into one of the damage walls with enough force to crack her armor.

He turned and started walking to the door. Without even pausing, Galvatron raised up his right arm and fired the massive blaster cannon attached there into a deep shadow, sending Bludgeon staggering with a smoking hole in his shoulder. "Remember, Bludgeon. I allowed you to follow your path. And I can easily uncreate you."

The martial Decepticon knew that any wrong answer would see him destroyed. And there was no right answers, just _less _wronganswers. "Of course, mighty Galvatron. As you command."

"Yes, as I command. Don't forget that I know you failed to destroy the Autobots that I had laid my trap for. My plan was simplicity itself. You should have easily dealt with the traitor. You have become weak, Bludgeon. And my army has no need of such beings." The purple and gray leader of the Decepticons turned at the door, his cold purple eyes studying his cowed subordinates. "You make me almost wish for Starscream to be alive again."

Bludgeon's usually obsidian and empty looking 'eyes' flashed red in anger, but he managed to keep his vocoder silent. How dare he compare that gutless wonder to himself!

Galvatron started laughing as he walked out, letting the door close behind him. Immediately as the door closed, he turned serious. Optimus Prime must be stopped from amassing an army equal to his own.

While Bludgeon pondered the best way to attempt to overthrow Galvatron. He, of course, did not want the job of being Decepticon Leader himself. Not for lack of leadership ability or desire, but frankly that the job always had someone else out to take the position for themselves.

'Frankly if Cyclonus wasn't so completely and utterly loyal to Galvatron he'd be perfect,' Bludgeon mused to himself mentally. And even worse, he admitted to himself, Galvatron always seemed to know when people plotted his downfall. Venom actually respected that ability of their leader.

Bludgeon wished that Optimus Prime or someone else could finally slay Galvatron.

* * *

The _Archangel _and the _Kusanagi _flew over a remote Orb island that the Junk Guild was working on building an Autobot base. To Athrun it looked more like they were building an entire city. It was extremely impressive and looked like it was transformable and armed to the teeth. It also was mostly orange in color.

"So this is our new home," Swerve remarked. "Looks like Wheeljack improved the basic design."

"And let's hope nothing explodes," Hot Shot half joked.

"It better not," Huffer grumbled loudly. "I did my best to keep out everything that hasn't been beta tested. Not that anyone will thank me."

Yzak looked at Huffer and asked "Do you ever shut up?"

"No, he doesn't," Downshift said while shaking his head. "As much as we really want him to."

"You can all slag off!" Huffer yelled and then stomped off.

"Well he's a ray of sunshine," Yzak deadpanned.

"Has anyone seen Kira?" Nicol asked. They had hit up a bit of a friendship as they seemed a bit similar in personality.

"I think he's still looking for Flay," Thunderstick replied. "Primus only knows where she went to hide."

"Hey... what exactly is Primus anyway?" Nicol asked as he wondered who or what that was.

"He's our god and creator," Downshift said with reverence. "We are all born from his spark and our his children. The Matrix, Vector Sigma and the All Spark all being doors to him."

"Though exactly how much anyone believes of that or any teaching of Primus varies from bot to bot," Swerve interjected. "It is however known that at least some of that is true."

"And how do you know that?" Athrun asked in genuine curiosity.

"Because we fought Unicron and the Matrix was used to light our darkest hour," Hot Spot stated in a hushed tone.

"Why do I have this feeling when I find out what that means I'll need to change my pants?" Yzak asked in a worried tone.

"Well seeing as Unicron is, in your terms, a planet-sized demon-god that wishes to eat the entire universe and the Matrix is the only weapon that can stop him... you might want to leave now," Swerve remarked. "He literally pimp slapped Cybertron."

That shocked the trio of mobile suit pilots. They had no idea how to respond to that. It then hit them that Cybertron was the size of Saturn.

"You never do anything small scale do you?" Athrun asked when he got over his shock.

"Pretty much," Hot Shot said with a cocky grin.

Then Birdy flew into the repair bay and landed on Athrun's shoulder. The bird chirped and Athrun hoped his friend was ok.

"I wonder if Tri-Strike and Aurum are getting an apartment down there," Yzak mused out loud.

"They aren't Flay and Kira," Swerve remarked. "Similar to them, but not the same." How similar was a matter of debate to the Autobots.

"Aurum is more personable then Flay," Downshift said thankful for that.

"What does she transform into anyway?" Nicol asked.

"Same thing as Tri-Strike, depends on her Striker Pack," Swerve replied. "Perceptor finds that really interesting."

"And they trying to set up so Aurum can merge with the other Astrays?" Yzak joked.

"They were working on that," Downshift answered him. "With the other four not being able to transform has made them shelf it."

"And if you think that's weird," Swerve grinned. "You should see the stuff that Lowe guy was dreaming up. Total rebuilds for the ASTRAY, stuff like power lifter suits and more. The guy has a very active imagination. Not really practical stuff but he's still stuck in physical therapy it's a way for him to pass the time."

"The Junk Guild and Orb," Athrun said shaking his head. "If imagination was a major force then they'd both be the rulers of the battlefield."

"Well the Astrays proved to be decent," Yzak remarked. "Surprised the brass didn't want us to pick them up as well. The prototypes beat even a custom DINN or GINN any day." Of course, those were a last generation system. The new mobilesuits were marginally better.

"Yeah, Primus knows who'd have taken them if we didn't," Swerve remarked. "Seriously at least four groups went there searching for stuff. The Junk Guild wasn't surprising of course but the rest were quite odd."

"A tender made to work with the _Archangel_t urned up," Downshift noted. "I think the Junk Guild bought it."

"Man, what wasn't on that colony?" Yzak asked as he felt all the stuff being produced there was starting to get crazy. The ASTRAY, the G-Weapons, the _Archangel _and now a tender class for the Archangel. It was like they were putting all their eggs in one basket. That made some sense as the ASTRAYs were based off the G-Weapons and the Arachangel and unnamed ship were to go to together.

Still that was a lot of stuff in one place. No wonder after the attack so many went to see if there were any more secrets and objects they could take from the Heliopolis. It seemed to have plenty to spare.

The ships then passed over the spaceport. The central control for it was a silver two or three story building that looked it was designed to take having a linear tank shoot it easily. The landing pads were huge as were the hanger bays. And the sharp eyed could see the _Steel Haven_ in one of the hanger bays.

With Wheeljack proposing arming the ship with positronic cannons in a chain gun formation. Something everyone else considered would not work very well. They were not a rapid fire weapon.

Athrun went to Kira's room to return Birdie. He opened the door and saw that he should come back later and closed the door while blushing severely.

'Of all the women out there he had to pick her,' Athrun thought to himself. 'Good thing Sai resigned already.' The only thing Athrun knew was that he needed to get himself something to drink when they landed. And hope Flay's issues didn't destroy Kira.

And the only person he even was thinking about telling what he saw if they asked was Lacus. Athrun also figured that Mu would be able to tell what happened sooner or later.

The captain and admiral he'd tell it was none of their business. Athrun just hoped they'd take the hint or just ask Mu. While he was in thought Athrun nearly hit Jolt.

"Hey, Athrun," Jolt said and when he got no response asked, "Is my gearbox hanging out or something?" That got Athrun to blush.

"Classy, Jolt. You're such a refined and cultured bot," Grip-Lock remarked with sarcasm drenching his every word.

Athrun shook his head. "No, Jolt, it's not that. And frankly it isn't important."

"So-" the yellow Minicon started to saw when the air reverberated from distant explosions. "What? Decepticons?

Athrun ran for his Aegis while the Autobots transformed and burnt rubber down to the landing dock where they were met by a most unusual sight. Nicol and Yzak were right behind in jumping in and activating the Duel and Blitz. Three Guuls roared up and positioned themselves in front of the Gundam's so they could respond to the attack faster.

A cargo ship was sinking as gasoline drums ignited like furious, giant-sized fire-crackers.

"For the preservation of our pure and blue world!" the humans shouted out. Missile launchers spiraled through the air to smash into the transfer-warehouses at the docks. One of the leaders was yelling out, "Get that anti-armor rifle set up! Move it! Move it! Those aliens won't fall over by themselves, maggots!"

Skysickle happened to be faster than everyone else, so zipped around a corner in his helicopter form and was nearly knocked out of the sky as a anti-armor rocket slammed into him. "Whoa! Who are these guys?" Primus, that hurt!"

"Death to the imperialist aliens!" a scruffy brown-haired terrorist shouted as he started firing a 75mm anti-tank recoil-less rifle in three round bursts.

That actually did knock Skysickle from the air right in front of Jolt and Roadhandler. They both transformed and had their rifles at the ready, only to be shocked to only see humans.

"Are we betrayed?"

"Blue Cosmos, " Yzak growled as he jumped his Duel off of his Guul to land with a massive clang on the ground. 75mm bullets started to bounce off of his Gundam like water droplets. Energon powered phaseshift was a wonderful thing, he thought to himself. "Figures these rats would crawl out of whatever hole they were hiding in." And his blood boiled as he knew those bastards would celebrate Dearka's death.

The silver haired pilot opened fire with the laser CWIS on the Duel.

"Napalm rounds!" the squad leader of Blue Cosmos shouted. It was the only thing that could fight Mobilesuits with any hope of success. "Kill the gene abominations and their alien spy-masters!"

The scarlet-white rounds slammed into the tall Duel and Aegis and much to their surprise, their outer front armor was coated in super-hot flames.

"Hold back," Hot Shot called out as he saw the humans fighting. "We should let the humans sort this out. No need to add hydrogen to that fire!"

The newly arrived Grimlock laughed at that as he tromped up. He was personally almost the size of a mobilesuit. However it had little humor to it. "Dinobots let's give our new friends a warm welcome." With that, he transformed into a mechanic parody of the great Tyrant Lizard.

The mouths of Grimlock and Slag glowed after they transformed into their dinosaur modes. As did the spines on Snarl. Then a solar energy beam cut through a truck the bigots were using as an improvised weapon platform and caused it to explode. Shrapnel flew at high speeds everywhere.

While Grimlock and Slag incinerated most of them with their plasma breath. Most didn't even get time to scream.

As the rest ran for their lives, Sludge put his foot down and the armored, metal dock buckled and shook.

"We going to kill them too?" Snarl asked in an almost giddy tone.

"No," Grimlock ordered. "We need someone to send a message. That they are weak and fools. Coordinators aren't be feared. They're weak and nothing compared to the Dinobots!"

All five Dinobots then let out digitized animalistic howls.

"I don't know whether to be afraid or cheer them on," Cagalli remarked in Red Astray as she saw the remaining Blue Cosmos grunts starting to retreat back to some ships in utter fear.

"That isn't right," Nicol yelled at the Dinobots. "They were no threat to you at all!"

"Most people thought the same of the Decepticon movement in the beginning," Swoop retorted. "And look what that got us!"

"Should have killed them all," Slag grumbled. "Not like we can't find some more to spread the message."

"These are not Decepticons," Nicol snapped at Slag.

"Weak but the same basic idea," Grimlock growled. "Kill anyone that they can get away with to feel superior."

"Like you?" Nicol retorted.

"We don't need to balm our egos," Grimlock said after transforming to robot mode. "We are superior."

That was when a double beam-barrage of green energy slammed into the leader of the Dinobots. That was when everyone turned as a new mobilesuit of dull greens and aqua colors zoomed by on a black flyer that was acting like a Guul to him. He slammed to the end of the pier and turned on his external speakers. "This fight is over. By the authority invested in me by the Atlantic Federation, all parties cease your attack!" The green-haired mobilesuit pilot, Orga Sabnak, had to hold back a laugh. He sounded like a pompous ass military pilot. Perfect.

They black, angular jet (that actually looked very Cybertronian, actually) rocketed upwards then transformed into a black and red-striped Gundam and slammed into the ground between the fight.

The final arrival exploded out of the water and onto the dock, his railguns crackling ominously as his twin railguns deployed from the light green mobilesuit. "You idiots should quit while you are behind," the curly-haired Shani Andras called out externally. He fired a warning shot above the terrorist's heads and out into the ocean to cause them to duck and hold their ears.

"Dinobots, smash!" Grimlock yelled out.

"No, wait!" Hot Shot yelled as he tried to get in the way. "They are trying to stop both sides."

The much bigger Autobot just slammed him in the side of Hot Shot's rounded helmet, shattering the glass faceplate on his brow. It also knocked Hot Shot back several steps.

"He said _stop_, Grimlock," Cagalli demanded forcefully from the newly arrived Red ASTRAY.

Grimlock's energo blade was instantly at the throat of black Raider Gundam. The molten lava red blade would dismember anyone in short notice. Grimlock narrowed his eyes as he tried to figure where the cockpit was. He noted dimly that the Gundam had some sort of wrecking ball ready to strike. It did not look gravitic-enhanced, so he was not too worried.

"You and your friends ever shoot me again and I'll kill you," Grimlock growled with a dark timber. And his opponent believed the Dinobot Commander would do his best to keep that promise. But transphase enhanced cyberium was probably one the toughest things in the galaxy.

Then Grimlock withdrew his sword feeling he'd made his point crystal clear.

Muruta Azrael laughed aloud as he watched the show from his home with a view of the ocean. The vista of Honolulu was ignored out his window, stretching down to the pristine Pacific. "Perfect. Now we can spin the dangers of these new Autobots to create even more powerful weapons and mobile suits."

The increased amount of money would also help in hiring more people to unlock the secrets of that armory. What the Transformers told him was that Lockdown was a collector of rare and unique parts and weapons. That took out much of the sting of not understanding them right away.

And footage of the captain of the Archangel able to awaken the Transformer gave him an idea. Part of it related to how two of the mercenaries were able to control what they called their Pretender shells mentally. If he was able to use something similar to directly control the Dominion then he'd be the most powerful being in the galaxy.

'And we can use the laser core we recovered from Lockdown's shattered body to turn the new Archangel-class carrier into another Transformer. It won't be large enough to control the ship so it should be safe,' the head of LOGOS mused to himself. He also planned for a frigate to be modified to turn into a rifle. After all the _Dominion Tyrantus _needed an impressive gun and that would make more sense then the Cornelius class ship tender to transform into a firearm.

Actually he was at a loss on what to do with that ship. Then decided that it really didn't matter what was or wasn't done with that tender.

* * *

The Professor played with her pocket watch that never opened for a moment as she watched Huffer act as foreman for the rebuilding of the _Ark _in the main Morgenrote subterranean dock. Spotlights from the stone ceiling splashed down on the bronze armor as Transformers, Humans and non-sentient robots worked their magic. Beside her was Erica Simmons who found the whole thing interesting. Of course the fact the die cast construction ship was mostly whole even after everything that happened and had secrets to faster then light travel made it understandable.

"Well at least this is better then my mission on Skarvos," Bumper stated as he moved a trolley packed with equipment. 'Half the locals are crazy as can be and their leader is considered a genocidal pain in the boron compressor even by the Decepticons."

The Professor stiffened when she heard. Like it was from a half remembered dream... or a nightmare.

"We almost ran out of time there, I have to admit," the Autobot continued. He seemed to like the sound of his own vocoder.

Time

...tImE...time...T-I-M-E...

...-...TiMe-...-...

With a click, the pocket watch opened even as she slowly lifted up to look at the hands. After all, she had to see the time. It was suddenly important.

And then she truly remembered.


	15. Shadow War

"Welcome to Earth Alliance Idol live at Ptolmeaus Lunar Base! With us tonight as host is the Autobot known as Jazz. Everyone give him a warm welcome!" A gigantic stage had been set up in an underground dock at the Ptolemaeus Lunar Base, lights flooding down on the massive metal floor.

The audience of technicians and navy personnel went wild with applause for the Autobot intelligence agent as he walked behind the five foot tall stage, waving his hands as his door-wings slightly flexed. The white Autobot had to admit that he liked the sound. It was better then the sound of laser fire or a sword cutting through metal.

"Thank you all! It's nice to be here!" the personable, white-plated Autobot said as he waved.

In a VIP booth, Muruta Azrael looked at the display and shook his head. It was crazy, yet it should work. With the Autobot as host they should be able to give the various mobile suits below the arena life. And the newly commissioned Archangel-class carrier, _Dominion Tyrantus_.

"So, Mr. Azrael, your company, Loramos Metalworks, seems like they outdid themselves with the _Dominion_," Admiral Garcia said as he grabbed a tequila from their private server. "You should try this, Captain Ramius. This is Rey Sol tequila. A very fine brand."

"Certainly, sir." Murrue looked a bit uncomfortable in her new uniform. Though the promotion was nice. Captain J.G. already. She had to shake her head. Her career had taken off like a rocket since meeting the Autobots and assuming command of the _Archangel_.

Down on the stage, a pink-haired girl in a costume dress appeared under a spotlight. "Hello, everyone! My name is Lacus Clyne! Thank you for coming out tonight!" Her voice was strong and clear. "This song is dedicated to the men and women who fight to protect our world. It's called Field of Hope!" And a special someone in the crowd. She blushed as she saw her fiancé sitting in one of the several VIP booths.

"_Beneath the veil of starry sky, As cold as winter's darkest night-_" she started to sing, putting her all into the music.

Jazz started to tap his foot. This was actually very catchy. Off in the distance, the other Autobot guests were looking up from their massive table and chairs where they were consuming Energon. Hot Shot and Whirl nodded appreciatively. Jetstorm was recording this for Blaster. He'd get a kick out of this stuff. Cliffjumper looked a bit giddy and a bit over energized.

Muruta leaned forward. "And so it starts."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Azrael?" Murrue asked as she took her own tequila from a server. She would get something more to her taste later.

"Sorry, just an idle comment," the blond businessman said with a congenial smile. He took a sip of his cognac. Murrue wondered if she should question that or not.

* * *

A group of Transformers tromped through the lower levels of the base, headed back to their ship.

"This whole thing is stupid. What good is music?" Slag asked Grimlock. "Doesn't even sound good."

"Yeah, not as good as Ragnarok and Roll." Swoop looked quite displeased at that. "Hey, what's in that section?" He walked over to a massive door and leaned down to fiddle with the controls. The primitive electronics were no match for the savant Transformer technology. His folded up wings flexed on his back flexed slightly.

Grimlock frowned, his gray head turning back and forth as he saw dozens and dozens of mobilesuits standing in rows in front of what looked like a dark gray _Archangel_. "Is that the _Dominion_? Stupid name. Sounds more like a Decepticon thing." He tromped over to the rows of mobile suits.

He noticed a few of them looked like a mix of the Tri-Strike and that Gundam that got trashed. The Buster if he remembered correctly. His vocoder almost crashed as he snarled at the sight of three mobilesuits that he had the displeasure to get shot by two weeks ago.

The Raider, Calamity and Forbidden looked totally at ease. The Dinobot leader noted the location of their open cockpits, just in case he need to fight them.

"I think the _Skyfire_ is that way," Slag said, heading across the large hanger bay.

Up above, Jazz felt the massive sound system amplifying the singer's voice. It was so loud that it even heard a level below.

The Dinobots were reminded of when Hardhead got over energized off high grade energon and started singing along to music at a victory celebration on Gigantron. Only without the amusing part of him falling over and landing on Hubcap.

The next act however was more to the Dinobot's taste as a rock band started playing. The brutal Autobots slowed down as they found it decent. They actually stopped a minute as a Thrash-Metal band started up.

"Looks like they do have something worth listening to," Slag remarked.

"Surprising," Swoop noted. "Kind of reminds me a shock pop a bit."

"I like it," the surly Snarl spoke up. That surprised his team mates as they all shared worried looks. Snarl didn't really like much of anything but fighting.

None of them noticed the crackles of electricity that were starting to converge across the ceiling as Autobots sparks were agitated by human singing, only to rebound across ten thousand or so human souls.

The Spark gathered more power as it increased in power and amplitude. The energy flowed through the Dinobots before hitting the various mobile suits and the _Dominion_.

* * *

The appearance staring back at Flay in the mirror was the best she could hope for. She changed how she styled her hair so her scar was covered up. It annoyed her a great deal she couldn't get plastic surgery to fix it right away. She had to wait for the wound to fully heal before they removed it and doubted getting a faceplate or helmet like the now escaped Rau La Cresant would go over well. Even if she knew where to buy those at.

'Still Kira loves me,' Flay though with satisfaction. The only real bright spot in her life right now was Kira Yamato. Everything else was pain... or pissed off Special Operation Groups of Autobots that bore a grudge. A dark part of Flay reminded her that she nearly got him killed in her quest for revenge.

And Whirl did not seem to take that laying down.

"You okay?" Kira asked softly behind Flay.

"As good as I can be," Flay responded. The two nearly kissed when Birdy suddenly transformed into a multi-tool. A pair of tweezers, a knife, a magnifying glass and several other items could be identified by the couple.

"Is it really bad to not be surprised at all by that?" Kira admitted. Everything transformed anymore.

Flay shrugged. "Well, it was there when Lacus sang so it was only a matter of time." The copper-red headed girl watched the tool transform back into its bird form. Could this be a native 'spark-form' of life? Not just sentience?

The young couple wondered if this was what the world would soon be like.

There was then a knock at their door.

"Come in," Kira yelled. And in stepped Nicol. The aquamarine haired youth was glad he didn't catch them at a bad time.

"Hey Kira, Flay... did Birdy just transform in front of me?" Nicol asked.

"Pretty much," Kira replied with a shrug as he looked to see if Birdy had a key ring. He needed a place to put all his keys.

"I missed you guys at the contest... so where were you?" Nicol asked.

"We... wanted to spend some time together," Kira stated. "If we went, Flay would probably be swarmed by 'friends' of her family trying to kiss up to her."

"I know how that feels," Nicol admitted. "My father is part of the PLANT Supreme Council."

"How did it work out that most of your unit was all children of Supreme Council members?" Flay asked. It was something she'd be curious about ever since found out about that.

Nicol shrugged to show he did not think of much, lying through his teeth. "It just happened to work out that way. I just joined ZAFT because of Junius-7 because it felt like the right thing to do. I didn't really want to fight anyone."

"Even the Decepticons?" Kira questioned.

Nicol's usually cheery expression turned dark for a moment. "Them I... well whatever problems we as humans had being natural or coordinator, most of us at least placed some value on life. The Decepticons don't place any value on life but their own."

Flay's expression tightened as interrogations of Deathcobra revealed the only reason Galvatron blew up the shuttle her father was on was simply because he found the message he transmitted to be annoying. Like he was some insect buzzing around that was distracting. If anything that made her desire to destroy Galvatron even more.

Kira put his hand on his love's shoulder as he knew what was going through her mind. It shocked and disgusted him as well. He understood now why the Autobots spoke of the Decepticons in such harsh and angry tones.

"The Dinobots however worry me a lot," Nicol said softly. "Most of them are like some street gang given military hardware."

"Grimlock's not so bad," Flay said with a touch of admiration. "He's brutal and about as political as knife to the gut but he gets things done."

"Send a maniac to catch a maniac," Nicol quoted from an old movie he half remembered. "Or to fight an army of them in this case."

The three teens wondered if any of the other Autobots were cast from the same mold as the Dinobots. Kira then remembered something.

"From the datatrax I've seen Sunstreaker was a rival for Megatron in the underground gladiator fights that the Decepticons formed from," Kira commented.

"Really?" Nicol asked as he remembered the vain Autobot but he didn't seem like the type to do that. It also seemed like something that would get him killed sooner then later. Then he remembered why he came to their quarters.

"We're getting a a replacement for Dearka," Nicol stated in an even tone. "And a new mobile suit prototype with the weapons of the upcoming ZAFT Gundams."

"You know if it wasn't so serious it'd be kind of funny how we get all the new toys," Kira mused with a slight smile.

"Yes, after you're the one to get a whole new flight pack after saying your current mobile suit wasn't fast enough," Nicol joked and then turned serious. "I'm not sure but you might have gotten your name in the history books next to Chuck Yeager with that flight test."

"Really?" Kira asked sounding surprised.

"My father has mentioned that DSSD wanted to build a thruster to send a mobile suit to Mars and beyond," Nicol stated. "Cybertronian rocket technology made that out of date before it even started."

That threw Kira for a bit of a loop. He never expected to end up in the history books. And then it hit him that because he was one of the first people to make contact with the Autobots he'd get into them anyway. It was an interesting feeling for the young coordinator. He just hoped he won't peak in life now. But somehow he had a feeling he'd get plenty more things that would get into the history books and challenges awaiting him.

"Come on," Nicol said with a slight smile. "Let's go meet our new team mates."

In the launch bay Kira was shocked to see a new mobile suit that was _bright_ orange. It was completely and utterly the last color he expected any mobilesuit to be. He then got past the unique color and saw the mobile suit looked CGUE II-ish in design and had four guns on it. It also had a decent sized laser gun in one of the hands.

"I'll give them this," Jolt remarked as he hovered overhead. "ZAFT doesn't go light on the weapons."

That was an understatement for the experiment GuAIZ if there was one. It was one mobile suit ready for war. And with a bit of luck be able to kick a lot of Deceptican.

"I see you found my mobile suit," a green eyed blond man that was a few years older then the other pilots said with a grin. He was a red jacket and to be honest Kira wasn't surprised. They won't hand out prototypes with weapons like that to anyone.

"I'm Lt. Kira Yamato," the purple eyed coordinator said as he saluted.

"Heine Westenfluss," the red jacket said in an amused tone. "You have quite the reputation Lt. Yamato. Fighting elite pilots, combiners and deflecting Galvatron's attack on the _Archangel_."

"Never boring with him around," Jolt quipped.

Kira blushed slightly at their comments.

"And the ship that got me here was so new it had a fresh paint smell," Heine grinned. "And the captain asked if when he meets with you guys again for the Gold ASTRAY to not go running around like his last command."

"That can't happen," Flay stated flatly. "I've gotten more mature and Aurum is alive now. She, um, _was _the mobilesuit."

"I guess we're going to ask Cagalli if Orb has any local coffee blends we could give him," Kira mused. He knew the Desert Tiger loved his coffee. And there had to be some good stuff he could send the man. Though he had to make sure someone didn't add decaf or something weird like maple scented coffee as a joke.

Flay wondered if Kira was aware the he wanted to ask the daughter of the leader of Orb about coffee for a ZAFT captain. Being a celebrated war hero and having contacts in Orb and PLANTs he could probably write his own political ticket anywhere but the Atlantic Federation. Then she remembered that Navy officers were half political anyways. He _could_ probably have a political career there too. It'd just be harder due to the anti-Coordinator bias of many people.

"You know Cagalli Athha?" Heine asked in shock.

"We're worked together," Kira stated. "I don't know her extremely well but we've run into each other fairly often."

That was an understatement of epic proportions.

"They've fought the Decepticons together," Jolt interjected in an amused tone. "For someone that's so against her people building mobile suits and the G-Weapons she sure can fight."

"I just don't want Orb to take part in the arms race that PLANT and the Earth Alliance have going," Cagalli stated firmly. "With frankly neither side being innocent in the war."

The irony was one that Cagalli considered foul and extremely bitter. It was the creation of and never ending desire to build bigger and stronger weapons that would save humanity from the Decepticons.

"Hello, Cagalli," Kira said surprised to see her on the Eternal.

Then Roadhauler drove into the hanger bay and transformed. Kira had notice by this point the crew didn't even bat an eyelash at that.

"Hey, you guys are going to be on _Around Cybertron_," the red minicron exclaimed.

"What is that?" Nicol asked.

"Just the best Cybertonian News Program," Jolt commented with a wide grin. "Though they avoid the Dinobots and Monsterbots after they nearly killed an embedded reporter over an incident."

"The singer he was interviewing turned out to be a Decepticon sleeper agent and the combat drones she helped make attacked and nearly killed him," Roadhauler stated. "With Grimlock and Repugnus making Whirl look like Beachcomber when it comes to grudges."

"Really?" Kira asked.

The minicons both nodded.

"Is there a book or computer files I can borrow?" Heine asked with a confused expression on his face. "Because I have no idea who most of those Transformers are."

"We can get you some datatraxs," Jolt stated. "Fistiron and Alpha Trion are the best scribes to use for that."

It did leave Kira wondering who or what the Monsterbots were to be honest. He could see how Heine could get lost on Transformers.

"And I could use that as well," Cagalli commented. "Given the Space Bridge is in Orb territory."

That was a good point. It would be a good idea to know when the rowdy Autobots like the Dinobots had shown up and prepare for the messes they make. Or make it clear their antics won't be acceptable.

"So is it always like this?" Heine asked.

"No, sometimes you find out the Transformers didn't mention something they could do," Cagali remarked.

Kira had to admit they tended to just show off stuff like the Minicons or combiners without mentioning it before hand.

* * *

'Where did I put it?' the Professor thought as she looked over a map of the Earth. Even with her memories restored she had no idea where her Type 95 TARDIS was. It wasn't like that old clunker that the Doctor had taken that was stuck in the form of a 20th century police strong box.

And she had this gut feeling that the Doctor and the Master survived the Time War. It seemed like nothing to could keep them dead for long. Though she really, really hoped the Master was dead to be honest. Being the last Time Lord was easier to take then having that deranged and cruel creature roaming space and time.

Of course, she was amazed there was a Skaro here. It had jogged her memory but given what they said about that cursed world was the same as she remembered it. Odd, given it had been destroyed. Of course due to the Time War anything could happen.

'Though the Daleks sound to be about a thousand years more advanced then they should be at this point,' Professor mused. At this point they should still be limited to using static electricity to power their hover units and not be able to get around stairs very well. From what she had gathered from Bumper's endless chatting on the subject the Daleks had internal power supplies and stairs were easy for them to get around. It all pointed out what aftermath of the Time War was. Worlds and races could be destroyed in eye blinks, exist before they should, and no one could regulate time travel.

The Professor cursed not remembering the Transformers in any real detail. They were a confusing race spread across omniverse. The most she knew was of one version in the multiverse that didn't experience their war and the inhabitants were quite arrogant about being more mature then their dimension counterparts. Other then that she knew the Transformers contact with humanity was in 1984 AD.

It did make her feel a bit better that humanity could hold their own against the Transformers now. Back then they'd be simply targets for the Decepticons. And humanity likely would side with the Autobots or try to equally and futilely take on both sides. It would have been a bad time for them to appear.

Though she did wonder how and why the Transformers showed up at such an important time in human history. She just had a feeling the Bloody Valentine War was part of when humanity's fate would be sealed. And she had some inkling as to who some of the major players might be.

Then the female Time Lord noticed a a temporal reading using the ad-hoc modified equipment she constructed. It was north of Las Vegas in the Atlantic Federation. A former plane testing site if she recalled right. And source of a great deal of lore humanity had on aliens.

It was Area 51. An unusable site given 'top secret' seemed to mean to the people running it 'safety laws on disposal of waste materials doesn't apply to us' and even now it was considered best to see a doctor after going there.

"Someone has a sense of humor," The Professor muttered.

"What was that?" her Junk Guild assistant, Kisato Yambuki, asked.

"Nothing," the Professor replied. "However I have to go for a while."

'And I think this is an invitation,' the female Time Lord thought to herself. 'Though I have no idea who it could be that wants to see me.'

* * *

Everyone waited as the Strike II was readied for testing at the underground Morgenroete complex back on Earth after the Lunar dedication ceremony. The mobile suit was a test to see how much they could upgrade the Strike design with new technology.

"What in Primus name?" Huffer exclaimed as the completed Strike II turned pink when the improved, higher-frequency phaseshift was turned on. The only parts left their original color were the gold parts with the laser deflector armor and its golden shield. It was an unexpected look for the mobile suit.

"Well that was... different," Kira admitted as he scratched his head at the change.

"I think I'll stick to a Strike Dagger," Tolle admitted. Of course being one of Kira's friends did have advantages on improvements to his MS like getting the blacklight pistol to use. And an improved Aile unit.

Jetstorm was still surprised how much Tolle sounded like Scattorshot. It was really weird. A quick glance at Jetfire and he nodded in agreement on that issue.

"So who is going to pilot that mobile suit?" Bumblebee asked.

"Ensign Allster will be the pilot," Garcia stated firmly. That Whirl's optics just narrowed and he had a sour expression was a lot more restrained a response then everyone expected. Even his knife did not extend.

Of course Tri-Strike and Aurum glaring at the Wrecker might have helped with that mature response. Neither wanted have to deal with Whirl but would if they had to.

That was when the Aegis walked past them, almost stumbling at one point. The movements were like that of a human who needed their morning cup of coffee. And as he walked past them, he looked curious as to what they were doing.

Given Athrun was standing with them watching the test (and quite wide-eyed) everyone had a feeling the Aegis was now alive. Athrun hoped the Green ASTRAY was available for him.

Kira frowned as he realized that their theory about Spark Singers had to be wrong. Aegis had not been on the _Archangel_ when Lacus had sung. And _should_ have been too far away to be affected at the Ptolmeaus Lunar Base during the event. Or had they? There had been an odd couple of broken elevators and different sections under repair that had made moving around the base harder than it should have been.

"Brother!" Tri-Strike stated excited and hugged the Aegis with a massive clang.

The newly awakened Gundam seemed a bit confused. "Who... who are you?" Aegis asked.

"I am Tri-Strike and this is Aurum," Tri-Strike answered him. "We are like you. Human machines given life by a Spark Singer. Though give you can already transform at least we know what you turn into."

"I..." Aegis said in a confused state. "Am I... a transformer?"

"Yeah, you're a Transformer," Aurum stated. "Don't worry about it. We can get you updated. Just one word of advice. When Optimus Prime tells you to stand down you do it."

The former Gold ASTRAY couldn't ever forget that. As hard as she tried. He kicked her ass and made it look easy.

* * *

The Professor looked at the desolate remains of several buildings. The runway from the base was worn and heavily cracked with dried weeds growing in the parched ground. There was a certain stillness to the air.

"Well, I'm here," the time lord said figuring whoever invited her was listening.

Then a massive white Autobot with red and gold parts appeared before the Professor. His blue face closely resembled the Autobot symbol. In his hand was a massive blue sword that seemed to glow with power.

"Who are you?" the Professor asked.

"I am Vector Prime, guardian of time," the large Autobot stated. "Not an easy task due to the Time War."

"I can imagine how much of a mess that would be," the Professor said softly.

"Tell me are you the Rani or Susan?" Vector Prime asked. "With your race's ability of regeneration one can never be too sure who you are."

The Professor smiled slight. "No I am neither of them. I know either of them or Susan's infamous grandfather by reputation only."

"And the most I knew of your race involved the Doctor and a freelance peace keeping agent mechaniod called Death's Head," Vector Prime admitted. "The Daleks are known to my race."

"They're a blight on the universe," the Professor snarled. "A plague that needs to be stopped."

"And trapped between the Tirol Empire, the Vesta Imperium, Decepticon Empire, Quintesson Pan Galactic Co-Prosperity Sphere, Nebulan Republic, Eternia, Thundera, Haydon IV, and Autobot Commonwealth," Vector Prime noted. "They are dreaming of conquest. But finding it more difficult then they could imagine."

"Don't underestimate them," the Professor pleaded to Vector Prime. "We did and you know how much we and the universe paid for that arrogance." A fully functional late model Dalek was a battleship by itself.

The temporal guardian understood what she said. He had to deal with the aftermath of what the Daleks had done. "The universe isn't the same as you left it," Vector Prime stated. "A pity Unicron couldn't prove useful and eat Skaro."

"Do I even want to know?" the Professor asked.

"Just that Primus and Unicron are not the White and Black Guardians," Vector Prime stated firmly. "I believe Unicron ate them."

"You're kidding on the last part, I hope," the female Time Lord managed to get out.

Vector Prime's silence was forbidding and didn't help her nerves at all. "The real question is if the Web of Time can be recreated," the Professor mused as a way to change the subject.

That device was what made it so all the Time Travel of the various entities didn't cause temporal paradoxes. However it was destroyed along with so much else in the Time War. That was something Vector Prime agreed with. When his kind used time machines the chance of time and space being ripped apart was a huge. It was like by accident or design they couldn't stop themselves from causing temporal disasters. The universe was too temporally fragile even after all his work for that to happen.

"Rassilon was nearly as large a pain in the reactor linkage as the aftermath of the Time War," the ancient Transformer stated. "Plans of his that would have made Primus very angry and his existence as pure thought very painful."

That was putting it lightly. The universe had nearly ended because of that. It was only luck that saved everything. The Time Lords technology needed to be rebuilt aid him in keeping everything on track. Though the Time Lords themselves were another matter.

"I still can't believe they brought him back and made him president," the Professor admitted shaking her head.

"I need you to do something for me," Vector Prime asked. "As powerful as I am, I am only one being. I need help regulating time."

"With some genetic alternations and time machines I can easily create new Time Lords," The Professor stated. "The universe needs us it seems."

"Time Protectors not Time Lords," Vector Prime told her firmly. "The age of the Time Lords has passed."

The Professor was not quite ready to just give that title up. But perhaps a modification of it. Something like Lord Protectors of Time?

"Now I have to go deal with the remaining strong hold of humanity in the future hiding on a planet called Primus that have become so 'civilized' that they need to take heroes from this era to fight their war with mutant pirates."

"Okay..." the Professor said as Vector Prime faded away. And then the Professor saw her TARDIS. It was a cabinet at the moment. "Old friend!" Now she would not be limited to primitive quantum computers and molecular circuitry! Even Cybertronian technology was as crude as stone knives and fur hides to her.

The Professor wondered if there really was an elephants graveyard of TARDISes at the end of time. If only just for equipment for whatever temporal police force she'd create. It might also just be just a story for all she knew. Still it was something worth checking out.

* * *

Gai Murakumo found the 105 Dagger to be a very responsive machine. Even with the bulky and improved Blaster Striker with its massive engines. The twin blaster cannons and the missile launcher were to give the unit the sort of firepower to hurt the Decepticons. Even the missiles in the launcher were a new type. They had energon mixed in with the explosives.

He zoomed across the test grounds, shooting the pop-up targets and balloons that exited hardened bunkers. Supposedly high ranking Atlantic Federation officers were watching remotely from the Pentagon.

And the Cyberium used in the armor of the Dagger was equal if not superior to the armor of his custom GINN. And the speed was increased by an even more improved OS and upgrades to the quantum computer.

'Speaking of GINNS," Gai mused as he saw his friend's GINN. Elijah's GINN was very outdated now with the Decepticons running around. Still he stubbornly stuck to using that mobile suit for personal reasons.

Even that GINN had been improved as much as it could be. It also had one of the laser proof golden shields. Though Gai still felt it was more or less a deathtrap with everyone rapidly improving their mobile suits and weapons. Even the G-Weapons could be destroyed in this.

The Strike Dagger ended up less stripped down then it would be otherwise due to the Decepticons. Every advantage they could get was needed. And the leader of Serpent's Tail had heard the CCUE II's were the replacement for the GINNS for ZAFT.

Gai then powered up an energon fuel cell powered beam saber. There was a hum of power as the weapon extended to anti-ship length and Gai cut through laminated armor like it was laminated paper. He didn't even need to work it at all to cut through the material. The coordinator just had to wave the weapon to cut the armor.

Gai then threw the beam saber like a boomerang and it cut through armor plating set up a quarter of a mile away in the testing grounds. The beam saber even made it half way back to him before falling to the ground, still active.

"Now this is a melee weapon," Gai said in a large smile.

"I'll agree with that," Elijah spoke up. No Decepticon would want to be hit with that weapon.

Gai then powered down the weapon and checked to see how hot the casing had gotten after being used. It was still with in the tolerances of the unit.

The next thing Gai knew was coming under fire out of nowhere. A blue mobile armor that looked like a brick with guns on it strafed Serpent's Tail on the testing grounds. Then a black and red mobile armor was barely dodged by the GINN.

"Looks like things got a lot less dull," Elijah remarked while steadying his nerves. "Just hope all that stuff you got work as well on Decepticons as they hope."

The white uniformed Combat Coordinator hoped so too as he powered up the beam saber. He opened fire on the mobile armors with the namesakes of his Blaster Striker. The blue mobile armor was struck and was blown out of the sky.

A grey car drove onto the grounds and then hiding behind some cyberium armor transformed and opened fire on the 105 Strike. Gai fired his scattorblaster and fired a spread of missiles at the hiding place. The plate had was knocked onto Axer left him pinned. It burned him for his cover to be used against him like that.

"Slagging scummy water bags!"

Elijah drove his heavy sword into the exposed parts of mercenary. The sword crushed Axer's armor like a sledge hammer would an insect. There was a sickening crunch.

Then a blue VTOL fired on the pair. The heavy lasers cut through a plate of laminated armor with no problem. Elijah was worried soon that would be through the armor of his GINN.

In the command bunker, officers and soldiers ran around. "Admiral Kewonski! We should evacuate!"

The burly wet navy officer just scowled at the non-com. "Son, I think you are just reacting. This is a good opportunity to test our latest weapons."

"But sir-!"

"If you are that lily-livered, then why don't you see about whistling up some reinforcements." Kewonski then turned back to the displays. Let's see what the weapons from LOGOS could really do against their 'tamed' Decepticons.

"I think we need some reinforcements," Elijah was commenting at that exact same moment as he looked for cover. Gai had to agree. It would be nice right now.

The flying Decepticons transformed and Elijah's blue GINN was blasted in the hip. The GINN fall to the ground with a loud crash. The coordinator's life flashed before his eyes when he had an unexpected savior.

A Duel Dagger sliced the helicopter blades off the VTOL with a new kind of beam saber that was a heavy sword with a beam saber added like a slightly shorter version of an Anti-Ship sword. Edward Harrelson showed them why they called him Ed the Ripper, not that he liked that nickname of course. He then fired off the missile launcher and shoulder cannon on his mobile suit at the two mobile armors.

The shoulder cannon on the Fortessa armor blew Black Shadow out of the sky to smash into one of the many concrete bunkers of the test range.

"Well you wanted back up," Edward remarked. His Duel was supposed to be this afternoon's test unit. "How's the hip doing?"

"Looks like if we survive this I might have to upgrade to something better," Elijah admitted with a heavy heart. It had sentimental value due to using parts of his friend's GINN in it.

The GINN didn't sound good as it managed to get back to it's feet. The blue mobile armor transformed into some sort of rhino-like animal and gored the slowed down mobile suit with it's horn. Great Shot then transformed into gun mode and unloaded on the GINN. The head of the GINN soon had the consistency of melted cheese.

The six changer mercenary shook his head sadly. By this point killing the pilot wouldn't be worth bothering. Not that would stop Black Shadow and Blue Bacchus. It was a trait of his friends he never really was that comfortable with in the best of times.

Suddenly Gai slammed his mobilesuit's elbow into Great Shot's back. _That_ got Great Shot's attention. The mercenary turned and barely avoiding being gutting by the 105 Strike's beam saber.

"A little help would be nice," Great Shot snarled as Edward and Gai both opened fire on the six changer in a vicious crossfire.

A few moments later, the 105 Dagger and Duel Dagger where shot at by Black Shadow and Blue Bacchus as both mercenaries had got into position and trapped the two mobile suits in a pincer attack. To the shock of all three mercs the extra armor of the Duel Dagger was taking the pounding and still looked to be in good shape. Gai's mobilesuit was dependent on his Coordinator reflexes.

"They die cast that thing?" Black Shadow gasped.

The mobile suit was 33 % bigger then the Decepticons and had more armor. It was more then equal to the standard Decepticon soldier and in the hands of an ace pilot could take on anything short of an elite Decepticon. With Edward Harrelson definitely being an ace pilot.

The mercenaries had this sinking feeling that they were used to field test the Earth Alliance's newest equipment in a controlled environment. It was the kind of cold thing Shockwave would do. The fact they weren't being paid for this suicidal duty made things even worse.

"We never should have come to this slagging tricursed system," Blue Bacchus growled. Unseen by anyone several objects flew from orbit towards the testing grounds. Flames covered their forms as they came over the horizon, but the others were too caught up in their fight for survival to stop and look.

"I think we have some incoming people," Elijah stated. What few sensors on his GINN that still worked had picked up something.

It wasn't until Cyclonus spoke that they knew who showed up.

"How dare you pretend to be Decepticons," Cyclonus snarled. This perverse farce was going to be ended one way or another. Most likely with several people dead.

"Hey guys, why are you pretending anyway?" Gaihawk asked completely confused. "If you wanted in I'd have put in a word for you."

"Because humans are sick creatures and they put bombs in our heads!" Black Shadow yelled.

"I'm not sure if I should be impressed they were willing to do that or disgusted they were weak enough to be captured and implanted with the bombs," Scourge admitted as he started blasting at everyone that was _not_ a Decepticon.

Then they saw a trio of Gundams coming over the forested hills. Two were riding on GuuL platforms while the third flew under it's own power.

"I swear you look away and the humans got new toys," Scourge muttered darkly. "For Cybertron's sake do these things grow on some trees that we aren't aware of?"

It would have frightened the Decepticons to learn the numbers of mobile suits the major powers soon would have. Orb was a minor power but soon would have hundreds of mobile suits. Something that would add to their belief that the whole alliance between humanity and the Autobots had been put together by Grimlock.

Great Shot quickly picked up the headless blue GINN. "I have a hostage!" At least that would leave only the Decepticons to attack them.

In green and orange Calamity Gundam, Orga Sabnak recalled that the pilot of said suit was a coordinator. He grinned. That would mean it'd be bonus points when he blasted the mercenary. Even better, he was the one they didn't have to try to avoid not blowing up. The pair with the 'Pretender Shells' they wanted to have their shells left intact to study.

The twin cannons on his shoulders started to hum ominously as they built up energon into the firing chambers. With a blast of crimson energy, he fired. The GINN made an effective shield to keep Great Shot from being killed, although it was still heavily damaged. It took the full force of the blast as Gai saw his friend die.

Gai's fist closed tightly and if the Decepticons weren't there he'd have killed the pilot of the Calamity. Ed the Ripper looked utterly disgusted by that act. He was sure that to those pilots he or Gai had no value. Nor did he want to show his back to the trio given he was sure they'd stab him in it with a beam saber.

"A pity we're going to have to kill them," Cyclonus remarked with grudging admiration. "He'd make a fine Decepticon."

Laying on the ground Great Shot grumbled. "Oh don't worry about me. I'm fine and thanks for the concern. Slaggers."

Then a massive shadow put everything into darkness.

"We got company," Flail yelled as he looked up at the _Archangel_. Mobile suits, Autobots and missiles poured out of it with the Rouge Strike leading the charge on a Guul.

Flay blasted Cyclonus with her blaster rifle. The Decepticon second in command pulled a pair of swords out of subspace as he dodged the blasts. Flay wondered why he was bringing swords to a gun fight when she found out when one of the swords was driven into one of the joints of the Strike. There was a groan of metal as the phase shift enhanced joint started to give way.

Ensign Allster instantly saw her power levels were dropping. Flay knew of the energy draining technology they were working on in Orb and that she had to get one of those swords for study. Thinking on the same wavelength as her, the white and gold Aurum fired her Stress fracture rifle to try and blow one Cyclonus's arms off.

Her shot was off and hit him in the chest. However it did cause him to drop his sword and clutch his side that was leaking purple fuel. Jetstorm took advantage of that distraction to strafe him, launching a bracket of missiles. He had really come to like the force-multipliers that the Earth Federation was willing to supply.

Athrun felt odd piloting his Green ASTRAY. Though the dual beam saber/rifle was working effectively as he sliced a Sweep with the beam sabers. Still it wasn't as effective to him as the Aegis had been. It worked and at the moment that was what mattered.

Kira, of course, was like greased lightning with the Purple ASTRAY. The Decepticons wondered if this was how the Autobots felt when they fought Starscream. The Purple ASTRAY nearly cut Gaihawk's head off with his beam saber.

"Now that looks like fun," Shani Andras remarked in the Forbidden Gundam and started hacking up Sweeps with his scythe.

"That thing worries me," Jetstorm mused as he blasted Ramjet out of the sky.

The Raider then got into the fight and fired the mouth Zorn 100mm energy cannon. It gave new meaning to shooting your mouth off. The chainguns on the shield were also used against the Decepticons to keep them contained before he could charge and smash with his super-dense flail.

"That's an odd placement of a laser," Yzak admitted as he fired the Duel's bazooka at the Sweeps. Yzak smirked as the enhanced HEAT rounds sent the Sweeps flying.

"No kidding," Nicol stated as he opened fire with the shield mounted gun of the Blitz.

The pair then had to dodge the fire of the Calamity Gundam as he didn't care they were in the way of his attack hitting Hellbat.

"Now I know how Whirl feels," Yzak growled. "And I don't like it one bit."

In the _Archangel's_ port docking bay, Perceptor scanned through the OMNI files to find out what those three mobile suits were called and who their pilots were. To his surprise there was no record on who the pilots were. Just a reference to 'Biological CPUs' which was interesting and made him think they were using techno organics to pilot them that had implanted memories from various pilots.

"Yet there is a pilot given one of them spoke to Grimlock," Perceptor stated in his cold way. "Something is not computing here."

The information on the biological CPUs appeared to be on a different server unconnected to the main OMNI one. It looked like a job for a Minicon.

In his neon-orange GuAIZ, Heine did his best to keep the combiner team members from getting a chance to merge into Liokaiser. It wasn't easy as a yellow Sky Grasper with a Launcher Striker pack attached opened fire on him. Heine barely got out of the way of the massive burst of energy from hyper impulse cannon.

"Who thought it was a good idea to give Buzzsaw a weapon like that for Cybertron's sake?" Leozack asked out loud.

It spooked Tolle to see that weapon being used by a Decepticon. He then got to see with to his amazement Kira kicking the heavily armed Decepticon with the claw shoes that the Purple ASTRAY had. Then he cut into the Decepticon with a shower of sparks.

As Tolle helped his friend by firing at the Con with the blacklight pistol he wondered if he could get the Purple ASTRAY after Kira got the ZAFT Gundam they wanted him to pilot for the duration of the war with the Decepticons. Tolle was kind of amused how effectively the Decepticons got everyone to put their war aside and work together. However, too many already had died for it to really be that funny.

The Green ASTRAY then attacked Astrotrain. The former mercenary dodged the laser fire from what he thought was an odd looking blaster by transforming into space shuttle mode. And _then_ barely avoided being gutted by Aurum with a beam saber.

"I hate this planet!" Astrotrain snarled.

Jetfire then blasted the triple changer in the back. It sent Astrotrain in a tailspin and crashing into the ground with a loud crash.

Blue Bacchus fired on the back of the Purple ASTRAY and was shocked when it literally flew sideways and his attack missed it entirely. The space gangster/mercenary got hit with corrosive blacklight beam for his troubles.

In the middle of that carnage Great Shot tried to stand up. To him the groaning of his battered servos was as bad as when he crashed on this planet. He saw Whirl point his blaster at him and then it was all blackness. At Heaven's Base the tracker for Great Shot went dead.

Flay picked up Scourge by the head with the Rouge Strike and slammed him into the ground. A maniacal smile was on her face as she stomped on the Decepticon. The sounds of his body being crushed brought Flay great pleasure.

Whirl shook his head. She might have fooled everyone else, but he knew better that she was one short step from going nuts on them all.

The Rouge Strike then picked up Scourge and Flay threw him at a group of Sweeps. Flay ignited her beam saber and charged at them. The Sweeps opened fire and found their laser fire deflected back at them when they hit the gold parts on the Gundam.

Scourge got up with many creaks and groans from his servos. Then he quickly ordered, "Aim for the optics!"

'Still at least this time she's not doing that to me,' Whirl mused. Suddenly a blast from the GuAIZ's Lupus beam rifle hit Leozack who was sneaking up on the Wrecker. Whirl's knife deployed and he cut a gash into Leozack from head to crotch with it.

The wounded gestalt leader stumbled and then was hit with the 105 Strike's Blaster striker pack. The force of the weapons sent Leozack flying into a hill with enough force to crater it.

Flay then pulled off the hip mounted miniblaster rifles on the hips of Strike II and opened fire John Woo style on the Decepticons. The blasters were not quite as powerful as the full sized rifles, but they packed enough of a punch to knock any Decepticon hit by them off their feet.

The pistols were then put back on the hips and Flay unsheathed the shoulder mounted Antiship sword and tried to cut Cyclonus in half with it. The injured Decepticon lost one of his wings as he leaped to the right. It angered him to take another injury like to his wings due to a human machine.

"We're slagged," Black Shadow said in a resigned tone to Blue Bacchus. He then turned and saw the Duel Dagger cut his friend's head off. It was then that Black Shadow made a break for it away from the fight. And suddenly clutched his head as his the bomb went off in his head. He fell to the ground with a loud thud.

That was enough for the Decepticons. "Decepticons, retreat!" Scourge yelled as he took off.

The trio of Gundams took that as their cue to leave as well, as their drugs were starting to wear off.

There was a cry of joy and triumph from the _Archangel_ crew at their victory over the Decepticons. It seemed they were able to fight the Decepticons on even ground now. While Gai and Edward were more subdued. Gai clenched his fist.

"They will pay," Gai snarled thinking about the three Gundams. Now the question was where he could find a mobile suit powerful enough to hold his own against them.

It was something that he was going to make happen. No matter the cost.

* * *

Lowe was happy to finally be walking on his own two legs again. And finally had the chance to modify a mobile suit. For a moment the Junk Guild member was imaging what it'd be like if he'd discovered the Red ASTRAY and the crazy adventures he'd have had.

He made a note to write those down given it might make for a cool cartoon or comic series.

Lowe then found himself in front of the ASTRAY they gave him to modify. He waved at Yoon Sefan who was helping him make the mobile suit into something fitting the Junk Guild's credos. And also helping him build Gundam sized tools for the unit.

The "RAYSTA" as Yoon called their variant was to not have weapons. Well, official weapons anyways. The Gundam sized tools it was to have, plus the magnetic devices being built into the arms could be used for self defense if necessary.

And even Lowe thought Yoon's idea of the Junk Guild producing unarmed mobile suits to be loaned out to people was kind of nuts. Given even without any built in weapons it won't be hard for someone to arm them with stuff like bazookas or blaster rifles or various melee weapons like the anti ship swords.

It was kind of like loaning out tanks or attack helicopters to people to be honest. It just won't work.

"The magnetic lifters coming along ok?" Lowe yelled.

"As well as can be expected," Yoon yelled back at him. "I need to speak to one of the Autobot scientists about it."

"Yeah it is probably something Perceptor or Wheeljack can help us with," Lowe mused aloud. "At least as someone to bounce ideas off of."

Lowe grinned as the Autobots were pretty cool. Well, other then the Dinobots, though Swoop was alright.

It was odd to him how someone that was a decent person could hang out with someone like Slag that was rumored to enjoy playing kick the can with the severed heads of his enemies.

That was something that Lowe really,really hoped was just a nasty rumor. Like that one about Galvatron having made this throne out of the corpses of Decepticon backstabbers.

'That kind of was creepy,' Lowe thought to himself.

He then looked at the upgraded flight unit for the 'RAYSTA'. It was based off the more space capable one the M-1A Astays would have. Something that this mobile suit definitely would need.

It was part of a project to made mobile suit construction units for ORB. And possibly be used to help build a new Orb space colony.

The really interesting part was that Perceptor intended to use a process to break down the various bits of debris around the Earth at the atomic level and remake it into raw materials. It was a technology some Decepticon called Mixmaster had even weaponized. It was just very energy intensive.

"Nice mobile suit," Bumper stated. "Looks like it's armed like an Autobot at the start of the Great War."

"So basically your movement started as construction workers and such drafted for war?" Yoon asked.

"Well those that weren't part of the Cybertronian Defense Force, and most of those became the core of the Elite Guard," Bumper said as recalled that era.

"They didn't do well against Galvatron," Lowe remarked.

"Kid he's the leader of the Decepticons for a reason," Bumper remarked a touch harshly. "Only Optimus or Grimlock or Omega Supreme can go toe to toe with him and live to talk it about. Thunderclash never suffered from Primus apotheosis."

"What is that?" Lowe asked.

"Emulating Optimus to the point of changing your appearance to mimic his and try to copy him," Bumper said in a serious tone.

There was a silence as the pair of humans thought about that for a moment.

"Anyway," Bumper said trying to change the subject. "You hear that the Professor has a hologram of one guy as the captain of her ship?"

"That one guy?" Lowe asked.

"Glenn...what was his last name? Or was that his first name? Oh yeah," Bumper stated. "George Glenn."

"Wheeljack ask him if he could make the Rehome transformable yet?" Lowe joked.

"He turned down that offer," Bumper replied. "Of course the ship would need a transforming cog the size of that mobile suit to work given it won't have a spark."

"Right," Yoon managed to get out.

"Still it would have been a nice use for the Auto Dock," Bumper shrugged. " We're turning Mengel colony into it. Given even if the virus was still in the air it'd do nothing to us."

Lowe hoped he won't be called in to help fix up that place. He'd rather find out from a safe distance if the colony was still unusable by humans.

* * *

The trio of Gundam pilots made their way to Staten Island in New York. When they reached Fort Wadsworth they went down a shaft in the heavy-vehicle motor pool to where their base was and with it the drugs they needed. What they saw in the base shocked them.

The base had been completely and utterly demolished. Only a quarter of the lights were still working and cast everything into sinister shadows. And somehow no one above it had noticed what had happened.

"What the?" Shani Andras gasped. "How is this possible."

Then an obsidian-black version of Optimus Prime stepped out of the shadows. Something about him remained the three biological CPUs of primal fear or the monster under their bed or in their closet.

"Gentlemen, I believe I have use for sentient beings of your talents," Nemesis Prime stated and unleashed three null sparks at them from a perverse simulacrum of the Matrix in his chest. "And I'm not taking no for an answer."

The nihilist once known as Rau Le Creuscent just started laughing as the Biologic CPUs screamed as they were reformated as part of their Gundams.


	16. Dangerous Currents

Nemesis Prime stared at his new followers in the ruins of the old US Army base. He hoped the one with the equipment on his back would gain a better alt mode then wearing his back pack like it was a novelty oversized hat.

The trio then screamed and acted like they were going through a detox program from hell.

"Hmm," Nemesis Prime said remembering something from his past life as Rau Le Creuset. "You're the batch that was drug enhanced."

The massive (to a normal Transformer) Gundams finished sparking with purple lightning. Their optics turned blood red.

"You will be my Riders of War," Nemesis Prime declared. "Our first act will be to commander a ship. We have something that must be gathered."

"And what would that be?" one of the former Calamity Gundam asked.

"Why, the lifeforce of our god that was treacherously spread across the universe due to the actions of Optimus Prime," Nemesis Prime stated as his eyes glowed brighter. "Once our lord regains his power he will be able to make all be one with him."

Through controls on their minds or not thinking about it, the four didn't consider if Unicron was beaten at full power if regaining would change things at all. They also knew Autobot Island or the new Auto Dock was their best bet for to find a ship their size.

* * *

Great Shot was surprised when he came back on line. He thought that Whirl had killed him. Standing over him was the infamous Autobot doctor Ratchet. Relief filled the six changer. He could trust the Autobots to not put bombs or trackers any of that slag in him. And at this point he was very tempted to ask to join the Autobots. At least he won't be used for cannon folder like Galvatron and those humans used him.

And Grimlock would have just killed him and got it over with. Still it was best to know what they intended to do with him.

"Why?" Greatshot asked in a confused tone.

"Because we need to know what is going on," Prowl stated standing in the corner of the medical bay.

"A bunch of humans found us after we ended up crashing to this planet,"Great Shot snarled. "They wanted to know how we ticked and rebuilt us with bombs and tracking devices in our heads. They also gave us Decepticon symbols, which of course the real Decepticons didn't take too well."

Prowl looked at Ratchet. The medic held up a green sphere that smelled of smoke.

"I did recover a fried tracker and the arming device of his bomb disabled by Whirl's null ray," Ratchet said in a firm tone. "It was of Earth manufacture."

The last thing Great Shot expected was to hear an Autobot had a null ray. That was Starscream's signature weapon. And the Wrecker was known for various things but that wasn't one of them. And what he was hit with definitely wasn't an EMP shotgun.

"It's a module for his blaster he didn't remember until recently," Prowl said answering Great Shot's unasked question.

"As interesting as that is," Great Shot remarked. "The thing I wonder is what you're going to do with me."

"Optimus is speaking with the President of the Atlantic Federation," Prowl stated. "It seems they're very interested in you."

"No slagging way I am going back into human hands!" Great Shot bellowed as he started to get up. "Those carbon units can keep their grubby hands off me!"

"Which is why we're working to keep you with us," Prowl commented. He was completely unfazed by the six changer's outburst.

"I'll join the Autobots if you don't use me for cannon folder," Great Shot said as he checked his arm and moved his fingers.

"We have concluded when you took a hostage you never intended to harm him," Prowl stated.

"Why would I?" Great Shot asked. "His mobile suit was completely slagged and I just wanted to cut down the number of people trying to kill me."

Mirage and Checkpoint had been called in for this mess and so far Great Shot was willing to help would aid them in getting to the bottom of this.

The black and dark blue minicon was behind the CR chamber and carefully watching the mercenaries' reactions. He was extremely good judge of character and when someone was telling the truth or telling lies. So far the sixchanger was on the level with them. And Greatshot won't be the ideal Autobot but he could be trusted enough. Mirage wasn't so sure about that as he was invisible and standing next to Prowl.

Checkpoint valued and took a great deal of pride in his abilities but not everyone could be read. Or worse they could be a deep cover agent so deep under cover they didn't even know they were a spy. Rosanna being Flip Sides proved that was very possible. It was something that showed how far the Decepticons were willing to go with their spies. And of course there was always the cerebro shells of the Insecticon Bombshell or Mindwipe and his hypnotic powers. With Mirage worried even more about the methods of mind control the Decepticons had that they weren't aware of yet.

The _Steelhaven_ then took off for Auto Dock, a former human colony. Whoever was behind the controlling of the mercenaries was likely to attack Orb and Autobot Island if felt it'd keep them secret. Optimus Prime of course didn't want to put anyone at risk and ordered them away from the Earth.

On Auto Dock there wasn't anyone human that could be in the crossfire and the DNA of George Glenn had been given to PLANT as they requested. Perceptor thought it was to help fix their genetic issues. There also were proper Cybertronian jail cells in case they needed them as well. Great Shot was to be made a provisional Autobot but they wanted to keep an eye on him for a while. And a place to hold him if that became necessary.

* * *

Athrun looked at the weapon his CGUE II had. It was an ax called a "heat hawk" that looked very promising. The weapon should cut through any nonphaseshift armor like it was butter. Something that he would be very useful. Still he looked forward to the Gundam he'd be getting. The weapons on Heine's test unit were impressive. He then sighed as he wasn't going to get a chance to test out his new mobile suit today.

The Supreme PLANTs council had ordered in depth information, so he told them about Primus, Unicron, and that anything in that vein. Athrun assumed it was the religious aspects and alien mystical artifacts supposedly used to destroy planet eating space god that was causing ripples. The galaxy seemed very strange and dangerous.

"And I wonder how Admiral Garcia deals with all this," Athrun mused. It was not a job Athrun would have wanted. Everyday it seemed like something completely and utterly insane came up. And the fact he was in command of the first mobile suit force of Orb, ZAFT, and O.M.N.I. troops along with the first eight Autobots to reach the Solar System.

Though Athrun would not be surprised if they managed to put back together a few more members of the _Axalon_ crew like had been done with Drift. Transformers were very, very hard to kill permanently.

'Unless you had a weapon like Galvatron's main gun,' Athrun thought darkly.

The Decepticon leader had to be seething at how Kira had deflected his blast and survived encountering him. That made him glad his friend wasn't self centered or a coward. Athrun was sure that whining the Transformer's war wasn't theirs after defying and beating a Decepticon leader was the height of stupidity.

That said he wasn't sure Flay's desire to use the Strike II to kill all the Decepticons she could was a smart idea. It reminded him way too much of how he was before learning the hard way that humanity had to work together or get slaughtered by the Decepticons.

'Now I think I could live with the naturals that don't think like Blue Cosmos or are part of it,' Athrun thought. 'Of course now they think the Transformers work with us.'

"Athrun," Optimus Prime stated. "It is time to go."

Athrun nodded and walked with Prime to the Autobot shuttle waiting for them. The golden exterior gleamed in the morning sunlight. Unlike the ill-fated _Blue Nixie_, this shuttle looked like two enlarged Skygraspers with a massive box wielded between them. The rear of the box opened and inside Athrun saw Ironhide who the Coordinator red jacket believed was Optimus Prime's body guard. The only part that Athrun didn't get was how a robot from outer space could speak with a US Southern accent.

Next to Ironhide in the pilot's seat was Bumblebee. Though it took a moment for Athrun to tell Bumblebee apart from Bumper. Athrun sat down in a Minicon sized seat and strapped himself in. He hoped they remembered he couldn't take as many Gs as they could.

"This is the _Darkstar_ requesting permission to launch," Bumblebee stated.

"Autobot Island Control here," Cliffjumper stared. "You are good go and starting countdown for your launch."

After the countdown ended, the shuttle rocketed through the atmosphere. The shuttle went faster then Athrun had ever gone, and was the smoothest ride he'd ever been on due to the internal gravity control.

He doubted they were happy with him at the moment. He wasn't sure what Prime was going to do or show them but he knew it was going to be interesting.

* * *

At the Yamato's home in Orb, Flay got to meet her boyfriend's parents without Kira's weird robotic friends around. The house was smaller and a lot more inviting in a homey way then her house had been. Though she did make wonder if Jolt was being left unsupervised to teach children new words. Even Roadhauler said he was going to rein in that.

Still that alone give her reason to not want to leave any of her own children with the Minicon. She then blushed as the image of what children with Kira would look like. Would they have Kira's unique purple eyes? Or maybe her hair color?

"Are you ok?" Caridad Yamato asked looking a bit concerned as she came back in the living room with drinks and cookies.

"Oh I'm fine," Flay said in a flustered tone. "Just thinking about the trouble some of Kira's friends might be getting into." She absently brushed the lock of hair out of the way and then back in front of her left eye.

Kira had a feeling Flay was talking about Jolt and shivered for a moment.

Then Kira's mother got a glimpse of Flay's scar and gasped. She nearly dropped the cup she was holding in shock. Kira had a good feeling why his mother was shocked and put his arms around Flay. Though he wasn't sure how they were going to explain why Flay got that injury.

"I just got this while in combat," Flay said softly, shrugging silently.

"You poor dear," Caridad whispered.

"I survived. And I'll be eligible for plastic surgery in a few months. Modern regenerative medicine is great," the young replied with a ghost of a smile on her face. "Kira helped me through the hardest point."

Kira took that cue to reach over and squeeze her hand in support. "So why did you want me to come home? You and father were being all mysterious when you called."

Harumo cleared his throat. "We were surprised when you brought Miss Allster with you. This is fairly personal."

Flay squeezed her boyfriend's hand back. That bolstered him up just a bit so he could reply. "Flay is very important to me. I want her to be here."

The parents shared a quick look, then nodded. Harumo continued slowly and carefully, trying to show empathy for the hard news he was about to impart. "You know that you are a first generation coordinator, of course. We never hid that from you. But we never explained that you were adopted. Your mother asked us to take you in if anything ever happened to her."

Kira blinked. This was not what he had been expecting. "I'm adopted? Why didn't you tell me before?" He had to relax his grip consciously on Flay's hand.

"For your own safety. Your father and mother were involved in the Mendel incident and there may have been people looking for you," Caridad explained. Then she smiled. "And we always wanted a son."

Flay's green eyes moved from Kira to his parents. "So what are you exactly to him?"

"Biologically we're his Uncle and Aunt." Harumo answered her.

"So that's everything right?" Kira asked. He could accept all that. It was a bit odd but things like that happen. Though he did wonder why people would look for him.

Caridad shook her head sadly. "I'm afraid not. You were made to be the Ultimate Coordinator."

"Ok..." Kira stated. "What exactly does that mean? I don't feel like the ultimate anything."

"Well it's no secret that Coordinators are having some problems having children," Harumo stated. "And your father worked on a way to fix those genetic issues." Among other modifications.

"Yeah, Perceptor mentioned something about that a few months ago," Kira remembered. "That unless fixed, the coordinators will die out." At least as a sub-species of humanity.

"That was part of what made this easier to tell you," Caridad admitted. "We wanted you to have a normal life, but maybe understanding how you'd been able to do what you did would be good enough."

"We didn't want you to feel that you had to sacrifice your uniqueness to save the coordinators," Harumo added softly.

Kira laughed and shook his head. "And I thought my life was becoming a science fiction series after all my adventures with the Autobots. It started way before that. "

The news shocked Flay. She then realized that her chances of becoming a teen mother were a lot higher then she first thought. As much as she loved Kira, having a baby now would get in the way of her revenge against Galvatron.

'And our child needs to have a shattered piece of Galvatron's optics over the mantle,' Flay mused.

The Decepticon leader needed die. He was just a robot and not some unstoppable force of nature. A very powerful and deadly robot, but he wasn't immortal.

It was the most important thing, above everything else.

Kira was unaware of his love's dark thoughts and desires as he hoped this was the last major shock he'd get involving his family. After all it wasn't like there could be more to that. With his trusting nature, he was sure that had to be the worst of it.

* * *

The _Darkstar_ made its way to Aprilius-1. In the cockpit Ironhide watched the various mobile suits and ships on patrol around the PLANTs capital space colony. He frowned as none of this would really stop the Revenge and Galvatron if he showed up. Of course, by this point Galvatron would likely call in Trypticon or use that Ultra dreadnaught called War World to kill them all.

"This is the _Darkstar _calling Aprilius-1," Bumblebee stated. "Requesting permission to land."

"Permission granted, _Darkstar_."

"I don't like this Prime," Ironhide remarked. "Cons could blow this place up if they felt like it."

"Don't expect that to be an easy task," Athrun injected loudly. "The GINNs, and DINNs are being phased out for more powerful units. And very likely a new class of mobile suits are being made with the newer technology we are developing."

"Say that when you face down Trypticon, kid." Ironhide really was not impressed with the local Guardians.

"If he's one of your really, really big ones I'm sure we can hit it with enough siege and antiship weapons will fall."

A ghost of a smile appeared on Ironhide's face. The kid had guts. He was going to need them for when Galvatron made his big push with his fleet when it assembled.

The shuttle came in smoothly and landed. The back of the shuttle opened and the Autobots and Athrun found they had a welcoming committee. Athrun wasn't surprised to see his father along with members of the press. Bumblebee waved cheerfully to the crowd while Ironhide scanned it for any possible threats.

It did surprise him that Lacus was here and smiled at him.

"Councilman Clyne," Optimus Prime said respectfully and extended one of his fingers for the head of the council to shake. It was the perfect image for a news soundbite.

While Athrun looked his father in the eye. Something seemed different to the red jacket. It might have been just avoiding being killed at Rau Le Creuset's trial or it could be more then that. He wondered if his father saw any changes in his eyes.

'One thing is for sure,' Athrun thought to himself. 'The Transformers forced everyone to look at their beliefs even more then the Space Whale fossil."

Optimus Prime and the other Autobots then transformed to vehicle mode. Athrun got into Bumblebee. For some reason it felt right to Athrun to ride in the yellow Autobot. He sat back and enjoyed the ride to the great hall that had been altered to be used to for this meeting. They had to make the doorways big enough for a Transformer to get through.

After entering the grand hall, Optimus put a data disk on the table.

"What is this?" Patrick Zala asked.

"The cure to your genetic problems," Optimus Prime stated. "Much of it already had been done by a scientist on Mendel and Perceptor only had to fill in holes since the files weren't all intact."

"Yeah you're all jerks but we might as well be nice," Ironhide remarked. Many of the PLANT supreme council had to resist openly glaring at the rust red Autobot.

"Also included is a file on the thrusters for what has been dubbed the Shield Striker," Optimus Prime said to change the subject. He also gave Ironhide a sharp glance. "It should make your GINNs as good as that design can be."

That was something they were well aware of given Athrun's reports and frankly desired. Though it likely would only be a stopgap measure as they made more advanced mobile suits and pushed for the ZAKU design.

The Regenerate Gundam and Testament Gundam Project were ended to give more manpower to the GuAIZ experimental arms, CGUE IIs, and ZAKU prototype. The Providence almost got canceled as the pilot considered for it had gone mad. Luckily, they had a replacement with an advanced spacial awareness.

"Now that is out of the way," Siegel Clyne stated. "We called you here to explain some very confusing things in the reports we have been getting. Primus and Unicron, in particular. Entities that can destroy whole worlds are something we must gain a deeper amount of intelligence on."

Athrun stayed quiet at that but really didn't like the implication that he was just making things up. Which to him if he was, would make a lot more sense.

Optimus Prime actually chuckled at that.

"There are members of our race that have trouble believing the same things you are speaking of," the Autobot leader commented. He then opened his chest. The PLANT Supreme council saw a glowing blue sphere of energy in a strange mental container with hand holds. He pulled it out of his chest and for a moment the light from the device illuminated the entire room. Then had another panel popped up in Optimus Prime and they saw a glowing ball of energy in his chest. The energy seemed to reverbrate within everyone, taking their breath away.

"What... what are those?" Yuri Amalfi asked softly.

"What you see in my chest is my spark," Optimus Prime said. "What you call a soul. In my hands is the Matrix. It is a gateway."

"A gateway to where?" Athrun found himself asking out loud.

"Where all are one," Optimus Prime said in a reverent tone. "Where our creator Primus resides."

A hushed silence filled the massive hall.

"And Unicron? Is he really that dangerous?" Patrick Zala managed to ask. The stony silence the Autobots gave him was extremely unnerving.

"Yes, he is that level of danger," Optimus stated firmly. "Even after I opened the Matrix and destroyed his body he is still out there planning."

"Is your race always doing things that violently punch holes in scientific theory and theology?"

Bumblebee shrugged. "You think that's weird, you need to meet the guardians of some of worlds we've been to."

That was something that they really didn't want to think about. What insane things could be out there?

"Enough," Optimus Prime said in a commanding tone. "We are sorry if this is a trying process, but most races know and interact with others and already get informed on what goes on in the galaxy at large."

"That include your war?"

"That has made us the social pariahs of the galaxy," Optimus said softly. "And many races think it will never end."

"Well at the time scale you're fighting it," Siegel Clyne mused. "It pretty much is. You have been fighting this war longer than we have been humans."

"Still it is something has to be done," Optimus Prime stated firmly. "The Decepticons aren't the only threat out there. The universe is a dangerous place. On that note I suggest you avoid Planet Doom, Quintessa, and Skarvo at all costs."

"The locals are really unfriendly," Bumblebee added. "No matter how much energon the Quintessons give you to drink."

"Five faced slaggers also claim to be our creators," Ironhide grumbled. "Just because they have their own knock off transforming servants."

* * *

"Nemesis Prime, the PLANTs news service is reporting that Optimus Prime is currently at their PLANTs headquarters," Calamity called out as his red optics read the information on a cobbled together screen in the old US Army base.

"Then this is the perfect time to attack the Autobots new space station!" the black and red Raider called out as he danced from foot to foot. "Let's go, go, go!"

Forbidden just glared at the too-hyper Transformer.

"Transform and Dominate!" Nemesis Prime ordered.

Raider turned into his flight-form, but more animalistic with movable claws and a vicious beak. The dark-copy of Optimus Prime straddled onto the foot pads that used to allow Calamity to fly on his back. Calamity and Forbidden actually merged with their the standard hover-wings. Forbidden actually looked like a monstrous form of a manta ray with claws, while Calamity looked like a flying brick with far too many weapons pointed towards the front.

Nemesis Prime started to laugh madly as they rocketed out the smashed base, almost striking a flight of Atlantic Federation assault Black Hawks choppers and Skygrasper assault jets. The humans did not have a chance to even fire they flew up. Down in the forests, the Strike Daggers at the edge of the proving grounds did take a few shots, but they missed by a wide margin.

Out in space at the Auto Dock, Grimlock was tapping his toes impatiently. "How much longer?" he demanded of Huffer.

"You were the one that wanted yer ship in top form," the other Autobot grumbled. He had been assigned by the leader of the Autobots to work on the _Skyfire_. The ex-Decepticon ship, painted in a garish parody of Optimus Prime's red and blue colors, had most of its hatches open as they brought it up to full capability. With the Decepticon fleet coming, the _Skyfire_ needed to in tip top shape for the battles ahead. Next to the _Skyfire_ was the barely started frame of a new Autobot star cruiser. With Huffer wondering why the humans wanted to call it the _Enterprise_.

Red lights starts to flash as human-made alarms blared out. The Transformer sensors had picked up three objects heading their way from Earth.

On the surface of the station, Jetfire saw the objects flying towards them. He transformed into jet mode and got a good look at what was coming at them.

"By the Matrix!" Jetfire exclaimed completely shocked at the obsidian figure riding on one of the Gundams. "It's Nemesis Prime!"

"Isn't he dead?" Jetstorm remarked as he flew in formation with the Aerialbots. "Really need to update the datatraxs if he's back."

"Open fire!" Silverbolt ordered. He didn't care if this was Nemesis Prime or someone taking his appearance.

The four Unicroniods were barraged in weapons fire. The Cyberium enhanced with transphase shift was tested by the assault.

Not a scratch.

Firelight gasped. "They aren't even dented!"

"Keep them from combining," Nemesis Prime growled. "Especially those five."

Raider surged ahead and rapid fire unleashed his laser cannons on the seven autobots.

"This would be a lot more fun if I wasn't in the middle of this," Calamity growled as he was hit with a laser blast from Silverbolt.

Forbidden said nothing and transformed to robot mode. He then slammed his fists into Jetstorm's nosecone. If there was air, there would have been a sickening crunch. To add insult to injury he fired his forearm mounted machine guns at the cerulean Autobot. He then fired his laser CWIS at the the Aerialbots to split them up.

Slingshot transformed and blasted the silent Gundam right in the face. That merely annoyed the Unicroniod and he tried to cut the headstrong Autobot flier with his scythe. Slingshot easily avoided the strike and Air Raid opened fire on the stoic Gundam. Calamity returned fire with all his weapons. The Aerialbots and the Elite Guard twins tried to dodge his laser spam but Jetstorm, Air Raid, and Skydive were hit. And the weapons packed a punch. Air Raid nearly lost his left arm because of that.

"What the heck are these guys?" he complained as he clutched the wounded limb.

"Die die die!" Raider yelled as he fired and surged around the Autobots and fired his machine guns. Jetstorm and Jetfire merged into Safeguard and hammered Raider with a burst of energy.

"Get me to the space station," Nemesis Prime ordered the spastic Gundam as more Autobots flew into the fire fight.

The Raider surged through space and Nemesis Prime leaped off and landed on the surface of Auto Dock's entryway. He considered it amusing that he had returned to his "birth place"and was closer to his goals then he could imagine. The former clone was driven from his musings by a fist to the face.

"I don't care how you came back or if you're a new one, but you're going to be reduced to scrap all the same," Grimlock growled and blasted Nemesis in the chest with a double barrel rocket launcher. It threw the insane Transformer back and Nemesis Prime let loose a barrage of laser fire from his forearm mounted blasters to give him some room to maneuver.

Grimlock transformed into his mechanical Tyranosaurus Rex form and charged through the laser fire. He sent Nemesis Prime slamming to the ground with a swipe from his tail.

An obsidian blade formed in Nemesis Prime's hand and he swung it at the Dinobot commander. It cut deep into Grimlock's side with a flash of sparks. However it didn't stop Grimlock from clenching his jaw down on Nemesis Prime's left arm and ripping the limb right out and sending the Unicroid skidding backwards thirty feet.

There was a shower of black sparks and then suddenly a new arm grew to replace the one that Grimlock had torn off. That surprised the headstrong Autobot enough to drop the severed limb. Nemesis Prime laughed darkly, sending a chill through the Dinobot leader's spark.

That set off his normal reaction to fear. Massive, overwhelming rage!

While on Earth in the Earth Alliance base, JOSH-A, the _Archangel_ crew was just about to get ready for their new post when the alarms sounded. The ship had barely docked in the massive drydock just six hours previously.

"Now what?" Yzak grumbled. "We just got here!"

The hot-headed pilot then noticed the Red ASTRAY being loaded onto the Archangel. And at the hips were a pair of armored schienders like on the Tri-Strike.

"She didn't keep the sword," Roadhauler said sounding disappointed. He loved being able to use one of those.

"Which you used poorly. Didn't look balanced either," Drift remarked as he recalled footage of Roadhauler using a beam saber and then that Antiship sword to crudely imitate things Starsaber had put on the datanet.

"Hey! Not like we could get any real sword smiths to make those," Yzak yelled.

"Isn't there supposed to be a guy in the graveyard that could make those mobile suit sized?" Nicol mused out loud.

"I thought that just a rumor," Kira commented as he saw Cagalli enter the mobile suit bay. He was fairly sure the whole thing with artisans living in a region of the debris field was just a story. Mostly because there would be no way for anyone to buy what they made if they lived in the middle of nowhere.

"Everyone to battle stations," Natale's voice called out over the intercom.

"It never ends does it?" Yzak sighed as he rubbed his forehead.

"Nope," Flay remarked as looked at the Strike II. "Still surprised they're showing their faces after the beating I gave them."

Drift rolled his optics at that. Cylonus and Scourge were beatable. And what Cyclonus called swordsmanship was lousy. The energy draining abilities of his blades were the only reason Cyclonus had any success with his blades.

The massive Earth battle-carrier's anti-gravity field had them in the air in moments even as the latest generation of thrusters rumbled to life. The humans felt a small lurch of acceleration as they broke MACH 1 in the first twenty seconds as they rocketed out of the armored entrance of the sub-base.

Captain Ramius nodded at the silent efficiency of her crew. "ETA to Auto Dock?"

"Five minutes, captain," Lt. Commander Badguiriel called out on the deck below. The lights dimmed in the CiC as she readied the _Archangel's_ system fully for battle.

"Sit-Rep from Auto Dock?" she called out to her communications specialist.

"There are only four attackers, but they are putting up a very serious fight even though they are outnumbered so heavily. Three casualties on the Autobot's side already," he called back. "The Dinobots are moving to support Grimlock before he is sent into stasis-lock."

"I thought he was one of the most dangerous Autobots? Nearly a match for Optimus Prime? Is it Galvatron?" she demanded of him.

"Reports are of a Transformer matching the design of Optimus, but of black and dark-blue coloration. We've got a name now: Nemesis Prime," the communications officer called out.

"I've got a hit from the Datatrix download. Match is good, probability of it being this exact entity is low. Listed as some sort of corporeal maliase that took the form of Optimus Prime before it was defeated by him in single combat. Listed as having Dark Science powers able to regrow limbs and nearly impervious to damage."

"Sounds like a damn monster," Natarle muttered. "Update the downloads for all pilots. Let Commander La Flaga know what sort of situation he is flying into."

The silver and green Minicon, Grip-Lock, had a bad feeling about this engagement. It felt as bad as that time they had to deal with the Yautja and their favorite prey on Dahros. Swindle had armed the hunters with light Cybertronian weapons and they couldn't resist hunting something that any other attempt they had made failed horribly. Hunting Cybertronians.

"Hey I know who those other guys are," Roadhauler said at his bridge station. "It's those three mobile suits that have shown up twice."

It made a certain amount of sense to Murrue to turn those into Cybertronians somehow. Even before they were able to hold their in a fight with the Decepticons. And she had a sinking feeling as there was only one more time when Lacus was singing with Transformers around as to when these mobile suits were given sparks.

The only thing didn't make any sense was someone creating a copy of a dark version of Optimus Prime that looked like one that had already been destroyed. Especially since no one knew about it until now.

Yet here one was. And he already had proven himself to be dangerous to them all.

The pilots barely had time to finish reading the file on Nemesis Prime before the ship was in the middle of the battle. For a moment Tolle eyed the Green ASTRAY, but realized his Strike Dagger by this point had been customized more then it had been.

Nor did that ASTRAY have magnetic clamp at the hip for his Blacklight pistol.

'Which after how well it works for Flay and Tri-Strike everyone seems to be getting hip mounted weapons,' Tolle mused as he leaped into the cockpit of his black and red mobile suit.

The Blitz even had a pair of hip mounted mini-rifles now. It also had the lance darts upgraded to Armor Piercing Schneider spikes. It seemed like all the ASTRAYs and G Weapons had been upgraded in equipment due to the Autobots.

While in the Purple ASTRAY Kira felt a bit worried. As much as he was thankful for the modifications that the Autobots had done to the unit, it just wasn't as good as the Strike, now the Tri-Strike, and if Heine's unit had the exact same weapons as the mobile suit ZAFT was giving him for the duration of the war with the Decepticons, that one as well.

Nemesis Prime worried him. If even Grimlock needed back up fighting him then they needed more of the Strike II or the GuAIZ experimental arms. Or any more powerful mobile suits they were developing.

Inside the Red ASTRAY, Cagali readied herself for battle. She checked over the various weapons and systems of the mobile suit and picked up the Green ASTRAY's blaster/beam saber to use. It felt like the best weapon to use in this case. And in the back of her mind wondered what her father wanted to speak with her about after this battle. He said it was important and a part of her past, but she couldn't think of anything. Whatever it was, it didn't matter at the moment.

"Mobile suits... launch!" Murrue ordered.

As Nemesis Prime slammed Snarl into Auto Dock he felt Mu's presence. He was surprised after his transformation he still had that ability and Slag hit him with his flame breath. Nemesis Prime's armor started to take on a taffy like appearance.

It surprised the former clone a bit that his armor being heated up toward melting point hurt a lot less then when he went without his pills. The body Unicron had granted him was made of stern stuff as he walked through the fire and sent Slag flying with a hammer punch.

In moments his armor fixed itself and the obsidian Transformer relished a chance to destroy Mu Flaga once and for all. That was going to make things all the sweeter for Nemesis Prime. Only getting to kill his former pawns on both sides of the conflict right now as well could make it better.

He then opened fire on the Moebius Zero Omega that Flaga used. The upgraded mobile armor gracefully and nimbly dodged the attack and launched the enhanced gunbarrels. Nemesis Prime laughed until he was hit by the powerful blasters in the pods. He was knocked around by the pods as they kept striking him from another direction. Then the Blitz while still invisible slashed Nemesis Prime with his armored schneider spikes. They cut deeply into the back/cab of Nemesis Prime.

"Looks like you learned how to use that ability Nicol," Nemesis Prime remarked coldly. "Too bad it won't save you."

Inside the Blitz Nicol wondered how Nemesis Prime knew his name, and fired the the beam rifle in the Trikeros. That didn't do as much damage as Nicol had hoped.

Then Nemesis Prime leaped onto a Gunbarrel and hit the Blitz with a flying elbow. If it was a movie or a TV show there would be a loud clang as the Blitz hit the former colony.

"If I was still your commanding officer I'd be displeased," Nemesis Prime commented as he raised his sword that seemed to absorb light like a black hole to the cockpit of the mobile suit.

Before the former Rau could kill Nicol he was punted like a football by the Red ASTRAY. Then Cagali blasted him with her rifle. If anything Nemesis Prime looked exasperated at her attempt to hurt him.

"So the worthless extra is here too, along with the pathetic Ultimate Coordinator," Nemesis Prime snarled. "For a time I considered he could be useful and considered turning him into one of my minions but now he can witness the dismemberment and destruction of the Earth and everything living in the solar system!"

"Do you like listening to the sound of your own voice?" Cagali remarked as she fired on the Unicronoid.

"Well I do enjoy an intelligence conversation," Nemesis quipped as he transformed to truck mode and dodged her blasts. "And you're as pathetic a mobile suit pilot as you were a rebel without a clue, princess!"

Nemesis Prime then had tires blown out as one of the gunpods blasted him. It seemed his tires weren't anywhere near as tough as his armor and he flipped over and slammed into the ground. He transformed and got to his feet.

"You'll have to do better then that you wastes of flesh!"

Cagali was starting to see how Transformers could piss off Flay as felt her anger swell in her. She had no idea what this perverse copy of Optimus Prime was babbling about but could tell it was meant to be insulting. A SEED of potential seemed to explode within her, even as her mobilesuit reacted. Golden circuit patterns started to form on the Red ASTRAY and the optics of the mobile suit turned from green to blue. The optics then glowed for a moment.

"Impossible," Nemesis Prime gasped in total shock. "You're not even a coordinator."

The Blitz rose up and fired the mini rifles at the immobile Transformer while Snarl hit Nemesis Prime with a solar beam. Nemesis was sent flying by the attack. Nicol wondered if Nemesis Prime could be his former commander or not.

And like she had teleported ala Skywarp, Cagali hit Nemesis Prime with the duel beam sabers. Nemesis Prime held arms up to block the attack. Sparks formed on his arms.

"Still got anything funny to say?" Cagali growled as she cut both of Nemesis Prime's limbs off.

There was a total silence as the limbs regrew. The Blitz took that moment to turn invisible again.

"You are not the real daughter of the so called Lion of Orb," Nemesis Prime stated as he pushed the mobilesuit off. "Your _real _father didn't even consider you for his project. He was rather set on making boys the ultimate coordinator. I will kill the pathetic waste of atoms that is your brother for befriending the Autobots."

"What?" Cagali gasped as Nemesis Prime stabbed the Red ASTRAY in the legs. That caused the mobile suit to fall and drop the beam sabers.

"Not that it matters since you'll be dead," Nemesis Prime mused in a icy tone. Red ASTRAY pulled out the armored schneiders and stabbed the black robot.

The blades penetrated the black robot's armor and stabbed through the torso.

"Slag off!" an echoing, double-voice yelled out firmly from the scarlet form in front of him.

It surprised Nemesis Prime as the Red ASTRAY then transformed into a Cybertronian jet form to rocket away , then back to strafe Nemesis Prime. Cagalli, on the other hand, was too far into her gestalt to even care.

'This is not going as I planned,' Nemesis Prime mused darkly as he found himself in a pincher attack from the Red ASTRAY and the Gunpods. And the Blitz waiting for the right moment to strike him again.

He just hoped his minions were doing better.

Up above Heine unloaded on Raider with his railguns, beam cannons, his laser rifle, and a spare rifle. The withering amount of firepower ripped off one of the avian wings of the Transformer.

"Tricursedslagger!" Raider yelled so fast it was practically one word.

"Just shut up," Yzak snapped as he fired a spread of energon enhanced missiles at the former Gundam.

Even the phase shift enhanced cyberium of Raider was rocked by the force of the explosions. Safeguard took advantage of that hammered Raider as well with a massive burst of energy.

"Still think you're so tough slagger?" Safeguard yelled.

Raider transformed and slammed the gestalt with his mega-density mace and sent them crashing into the Tri-Strike. The pair demerged on impact. The former biological CPU then fired energy blasts from his mouth at the Whirl who did his best do dodge by flying like a madman. He also fired his shield cannon and the forearm mounted machine gun on his other arm. One of the shells hit one of Whirl's engines and the Wrecker crashed into Auto Dock.

Then the Forbidden detached the cannon on his back and it transformed into a SAW-like weapon and he blasted the Duel with it. The attack nearly melted the Duel's armored shroud. That also set off the remaining missiles in a large explosion that engulfed the mobile suit.

"Yzak!" Kira yelled. And to everyone's shock a heavily damaged and armored shroudless Duel still was there after the energon enhanced bombs went off.

"It'll take more then that to stop me!" Yzak yelled defiantly as the scorched Duel kept blasting away with its rifle to little effect.

Calamity sighed. If you wanted something do right you had to do it yourself. He transformed to robot mode and fired chest cannon, bazooka, shield mounted lasers, and to their surprise, optic blasts. Kira held up his shield and managed to block the blasts, deflecting off of it to blast the Forbidden. The bazooka blasts rattled the Purple ASTRAY's arms heavily, causing cracks to form in the armor.

Energy crackled just before it hit the submersible ex-mobilesuit, bending the attacks to strike Bumper. The blow was so powerful that the Autobot's frame was shattered. Purple fluids floated in space.

"What sort of energy shield is that?" Tolle shouted out as he held up his own golden shield as well.

Flay just charged ahead and let Calamity have it with the Blaster Striker. The cannons hammered at the Transformer. Still it didn't worry the former Gundam at all. None of these humans or Autobots had the kind of fire power to take him out. Even that bright orange mobile suit couldn't do it.

Riding on a GuuL Drift wished he knew crystalocution. He blasted the Raider in the face with an energy beam from his sword. The obsidian Gundam tried to blow up Drift's mode of transportion. Downshift fired and managed to get one of his missiles lodged in the Raider's open mouth.

"Think it'll do anything?" Hotshot asked as he dodged a swing from the Forbidden's scythe.

Drift blasted the missile with an emerald blast from his sword and there was a bright flash of light in Raider's face and he stumbled around like he'd been blinded, but had no damage to his super structure.

That was when the Aerialbots finally managed to merge to form Superion. The gestalt put full power to his primary weapon and everyone learned where Perceptor had gotten the idea for Aurum's stress fracture cannon as Forbidden started to resemble a toy car run over by a linear tank.

"Well that explains he he told us to not to let them combine," Calamity gasped. That had nearly sent him into stasis lock.

Superion blast out again, this time to take out the green Unicroid. To its amazement, its beam was dispersed by the powerful magnetic field. His heavy-railguns, powered by Cybertronian technology now, slammed into the giant white Autobot's knee joint. The powerful magnetic fields were suddenly used to attract him towards the gestalt in a blitz attack.

With a massive swing that shattered his scythe, Forbidden hit the weakened joint and dispersed the Autobot back into his constituent Aerialbots.

"You're not getting away!" Yzak bellowed as golden armor patterns started to form on his mobile suit. The Duel also appeared to be slowly repairing itself of the heavy damage done to it.

"You know I feel rather left out on that," Calamity remarked as he hit the Strike II with a roundhouse kick. "Why can they do that and we can't?"

"Who cares," Forbidden stated in a harsh whisper.

That was when the GuAIZ experiment arms unloaded on the evil Gundam trio again. Calamity attached his bazooka to his back and retracted his hand. A katar came out of it and he flew at Heine. A last minute pulling to the left kept him from being stabbed right in the cockpit with the melee weapon.

Faster then they expected the Duel flies over and takes Calamity's bazooka and blasts him with it. The blue Unicronian's left arm hangs limply. That sent him into a rage and he ripped one of the Duel's arms off and started to beat him to death with it.

"Just die you annoying water bag!" Calamity yelled as he threw the arm away and started crushing the neck of the Duel with his right hand.

Forbidden shook his head. His comrade had all those guns and he had to do it the physical way. He then gave Calamity cover fire as the Gundams and Autobots tried to save their comrade. The Raider also threw his weight around by blasting them or knocking them away with his mace.

"Get off!" Duel growled in a dual voice as with his remaining arm reached into Calamity's wound and yanked on anything he could get his hands on. The former Gundam let out a horrific scream of pain.

Suddenly there was a volley of laser fire as Nemesis flew by in a stolen shuttle. Calamity grabbed his bazooka and then kicked the Duel gundam away.

"Another time Coordinator!" Calamity sneered.

The evil trio entered the shuttle with a hail of weapons fire. And then it a flash it went to transwarp and was gone from the solar system.

"Primus," Jetstorm moaned painfully. "And I thought Liokaiser was bad enough."

That was a statement everyone agreed with.

* * *

Yzak took off his inner suit and got into the shower. As the warm water cascaded over him he was glad that due to Transformers technology they had their own gravity field. The _Archangel_ was the most advanced thing in Earth space.

Then the silver haired coordinator noticed his hands started shaking as he realized how close he came to being killed several times in the battle. As a soldier he knew that he would face death in battle. It was something Dearka's passing made even clearer to him.

Still it hurt a bit to lose Rusty, Miguel, and Dearka. It also hurt because Rusty would have loved to work with the Autobots and have felt much better to have an enemy that the right thing definitely was to fight them. In his world made bright and vibrant by the coming of the Transformers it was kind of refreshing for the Decepticons to be so clearly evil and had to be stopped.

He had never had as many close calls as fighting those trio of former Gundams. Not even the battle where Dearka died. If the energon enhanced missiles had a bigger boom or the Armored Shroud wasn't as tough as it had been, he would be very, very dead.

"I'm lucky to be alive,' Yzak thought to himself.

He gathered up his courage after finishing his shower. There was something he couldn't put off any more. For all he knew that Unicron guy could show up in the solar system for their next fight. Or some other dark and insanely powerful entity or some alien race like the Borg that could swat them all aside like flies would attack.

He donned a clean uniform and then looked for Miriallia to tell her how he felt about her. He hoped she won't reject him. After a bit of searching the ship, he saw her and Tolle talking outside of the Strike Dagger pilot's quarters.

Yzak stayed around a corner watched them. He could wait for them to finish their conversation before asking Miriallia out.

"And now we got two new Transformers," Tolle said with an amused smile. "Of course Red Astray doesn't know what gender he is and Downshift remarked 'You Earth born transformers...first one of you doesn't have a name, and now one of you doesn't know what gender you are. Looks like we need to upgrade the datatrax we give you.' and Red Astray asked him why it mattered."

"I can understand that," Miriallia agreed and looked amused. "They're robots and doesn't mean anything to them."

Tolle shrugged. Then the pair kissed and Yzak could literally feel his heart shatter. Yzak avoided being seen by the pair and wandered the halls of the Archangel like a lost soul. It hurt so much and he was surprised when he found himself in the mess hall with Nicol and Thunderstick sitting next to him.

"By Primus, you look like the Pit," the blue minicon commented.

"If that's hell then I feel like it," the hot-headed coordinator admitted in a weary tone.

"You found out Tolle and Miriallia are dating didn't you?" Nicol spoke softly.

"You knew?" Yzak snapped. Thunderstick wondered if he'd have to restrain Yzak.

Yzak then sighed. "Sorry. I finally worked up the guts to ask her out and I find her kissing Tolle. My timing sucks."

"You do know that Shiho has feelings for you right?" Nicol asked his teammate. It wasn't a secret to him or anyone that she carried a torch for Yzak.

Yzak gave him a confused expression. What was Nicol talking about? She was a good friend, and a loyal comrade. Admittedly not the best shot with a ranged weapon, but he still would be glad if she was watching his back in fight.

"We are talking about Housenka right?" Yzak said recalling his nickname for Shiho Hahnenfuss. Nicol nodded.

"Really?" Yzak asked. "You're not just playing matchmaker and hoping for the best?"

"I _do_ want to avoid seeing you moping," Nicol remarked to try to lighten the atmosphere. "But she does have feelings for you. I have no why, but hey, we can always say Cupid was drunk."

"I never knew had such a sardonic sense of humor Nicol," Thunderstick interjected. "I like it."

That got a chuckle from Yzak. And he started feeling a little better now. Though he wondered what was going to happen to the CGUE DEEP project given figuring out beam weapon was easy due to all the Transformer energy weapons that could be found or Transformers that could be asked how to make them.

"Well I'll ask Shiho out next time we're together in the same place," Yzak commented and made a note to avoid anything that involved shooting things on that date.

* * *

In his quarters on the Decepticon dreadnaught _Twilight_, Jhiaxus looked at an ancient (even by Transformers standards) data cube. The ancient knowledge stored within it had aided him in his quest for power many times over the solar cycles. The cube of Boltax was Jhiaxus's greatest treasure.

Long ago, Jhiaxus had learned of different ways without using Primus or his gateways to create new life. Spark singers and budding were two of those means. The first he was shocked there were beings that could do that. He wished to make use of that and other methods to create his own to create an army loyal only to him. Then he could take over as leader of the Decepticons.

He was more refined, more cultured, and far superior a being then that relic that lead the Decepticons how. He and his planned new generation of Cybertronians would turn the Decepticon Empire into a true Cybertronian Empire with members he saw useful from all factions united under one banner. His banner!

However he had to bury those ambitions for now. Soon he would be close to Galvatron, and other then Cyclonus, none of the generals wished to be anywhere near him. Starscream and later backstabbers being killed off with prejudice by Galvatron made clear what he felt of those and that he felt they made good throne parts.

His loyal lieutenants Skyjack and Mindset entered the inner sanctum of his ship. Both were loyal to Jhiaxus and willing to die for him if needed.

"I have an important mission to you," Jhiaxus stated as he stood up from his own throne. "When the grand battle comes, I need two to gather as many humans you can."

"...Sir?" Mindset asked, not understanding the reason for this.

"They have spark singers and since singing isn't a genetic trait we'll need as many as we can and they better hope they can sing well enough to give life to a new generation of Cybertronians," Jhiaxus stated in a cold tone.

"And where would we take them?" Skyjack asked politely without bothering to ask what a Spark Singer was.

"To a world that can support organic life I've dubbed Primus," Jhiaxus stated and brought it up on a holomap. "It, like the planet we are going to, is off the beaten path and has what they need to support themselves in large quantities. They will be kept in by a forcefield we've designed. The safer they feel the more docile and compliant they will be."

"That makes sense," Mindset admitted.

"My only question is how to hide this from the others," Skyjack remarked. The red and black seeker might be willing to die for Jhiaxus and his goals, but he didn't look forward to doing so on suicide missions.

"I have my ways," Jhiaxus cryptically commented to his minions.

"And they'll keep Galvatron from slagging us?" Mindset asked. The emerald and silver Decepticon wanted to know if they could do that.

"Oh, I'm sure they will," Jhiaxus stated firmly. "You have your orders."

* * *

On the planet Athenia, the Wreckers relaxed after their harrowing mission in Quintesson space. Roadbuster logged onto the datanet and was shocked by the message he got from Whirl.

"Hey bots you won't believe this," Roadbuster yelled. "Whirl's been having fun while with Perceptor!"

"That's possible?" Rotorstorm joked. The light blue Autobot was Whirl's replacement on the team.

"Found the inhabitants of a world he was to set up a safe house on have Guardians they pilot called mobile suits and things have gone crazy," the brown, orange and green Autobot commented. "Getting in the middle of a war between the locals, and one of them able to deflect Galvatron's particle energy blast with with a beam saber, an ancient myth turning out to be true, and one of the locals is a complete and utter maniac that tried to kill him... and turns that Whirl left us to to watchdogbot/bodyguard to Drift."

"So why did Drift need it?" Guzzle asked in a bored tone as he played with his gun.

"He used to be a con and some maniac might have had her lasercore in the right place trying to kill him but she nearly got Whirl in the crossfire," Roadbuster explained.

"And she's not dead?"

Roadbuster shook his head. "She's still alive but she disobeyed Optimus Prime and didn't stand down."

Every Wrecker winced. As gung ho as they were to leap into facing danger there were a few things even they weren't going to test their luck against. One of those was Optimus Prime given Springer, Broadside and Sandstorm in their early days impersonated Decepticons to prove how powerful they were.

Optimus wiped the floor with the three of them. It made the Wreckers respect their leader that much more.

"And the myth that is true is the one of spark singers," Roadbuster noted.

"That's an obscure one," Crosswise admitted. It was a myth barely anyone knew of. Crosswise had made it a hobby to find out he could about Cybertronian mythology when he was young.

"Did he say how Hot Shot was doing?" Arcee asked Roadbuster sweetly. It was a velvet glove over a fist of cybertitanium.

"He's not dead," Roadbuster admitted. "But he really didn't say much about the rest of his team. Though he did mention that Elite Guard combiner ending up stuck with them."

"Bunch of energy leeches," Guzzle grumbled. "They get combiners and we don't."

"Anyway, Whirl is asking for our help since the locals he and the others formed alliances with have shoved their foots up the Decepticons' reactor linkages and he's going to bring in a fleet to crush the place. Optimus Prime and Grimlock are already there with their forces."

Everyone turned to Impactor who was drinking a tall glass of energon.

"Of course we're helping Whirl," Impactor said forcefully. "No matter what he's a Wrecker and he won't ask for our help unless he needed it. Wreck and Rule!"

"WRECK AND RULE!"


	17. Countdown to Destiny

The trio of battered Unicroids were messing with repairing themselves in their purloined shuttle. So far Nemesis Prime considered them a good use of the null sparks. Though to his annoyance he was sure that the GuAIZ experimental arms was going to go from being a test bed to a standard production model given how well it did against his troops.

That Athrun was going to get one of the Gundams armed with weapons like that was going to be a pain the butt. Nemesis then threw out the idea of turning Athrun into one of his minions. The former clone relished the thought of throwing the battered and shattered Freedom or Justice Gundam at Patrick Zala's feet and seeing his despair before killing him.

'And here I thought he'd be useful for my plans,' Nemesis Prime mused. It seemed like so long ago he was just a human with plans to destroy all of humanity. Space Whale aside, there didn't seem to be signs that aliens visited Earth space like it was a major way station as seen in fiction.

So when aliens from outer space showed up he caught off guard and never prepared for. He denied it to keep his plans on track. That he had at the time killed one of them showed he might be able to destroy all of them in the Solar System.

Then Galvatron and the Decepticons came and utterly ruined those plans. Though now he had the chance to destroy the entire universe thanks to Unicron. The only thing in his way was the matrix in Optimus Prime's chest.

'I hate Optimus Prime,' the former clone seethed. The Autobot leader was such a 'selfless paladin' and 'save the day' hero. Such delusional beings needed to be killed. Especially since he'd inspire Athrun, Kira, and likely everyone that was a moderate on all sides to be the most heroic they could be. He was like the Lion of Orb merged with King Arthur.

Then Nemesis Prime laughed thinking about how much of a pain in the ass Optimus had to be to Blue Cosmos. He was almost tempted to let the Atlantic Federation fall into chaos due to the Autobots exposing the antigenetics cabal in charge it. And he was sure that one reporter Jess Rabble would sink his teeth into that story like a pit bull into the limb of a thief. That mess would weaken Earth's chances of survival.

'Still it just won't be as much fun as killing them all personally,' Nemesis Prime thought to himself.

That would be enough reason to destroy them at their strongest after he had gathered an army. So many people to kill and not enough time before Galvatron made his big push with his fleet. As easy as it would be to let Galvatron destroy the Solar System, Nemesis Prime still wanted to do it himself. He intended to destroy it anyway so he might as well finish that.

Nemesis Prime then noticed something on the shuttle's computers. A large amount of energy being gathered on the planet Quintessa.

"Quintessa," Nemesis Prime mused out loud. "This sounds like a good place to get started." And with a little luck there might be some beings worth recruiting as well.

* * *

Kira had been invited to ride back to Orb on her shuttle by Cagalli, which was a little surprising. The princess had been giving him odd looks after the battle. It actually made him feel a little uncomfortable to be honest. An awkward silence settled in the shuttle.

Flay had not been able to swing the free time, so had stayed back on the Archangel helping with the upgrading of the Green Astray. A machine that was starting to be dubbed 'the fill in ASTRAY' by everyone. The Purple ASTRAY had been more damaged than it looked to begin with, it may need to be stripped down entirely to be fixed. And Perceptor had the idea of mounting the beam sabers in the forearms. It sounded as good of a place as any to put them to the purple eyed coordinator.

Meanwhile Cagali studied Kira's face and compared it to her own. Could Nemesis Prime have been telling the truth? Did she truly have a brother? Kira was a nice guy and all but she needed more proof then the word of a deranged Optimus Prime impersonator. That he also claimed to be a human also put his words into doubt.

Nicol's words that he knew him were worrying though. That made it slightly more possible that Nemesis Prime had been Raul Le Creuset, the deranged ZAFT ace who had been exposed as an illegal clone after the trial.

Suddenly their shuttle found itself having a pair of escorts as Jetfire and Jetstorm flew beside them in jet mode. Kira was glad they weren't heavily damaged in the last fight.

The Elite Guard members were hopeful as the Steel Haven had been sent out to search and see if there was anything and anyone salvageable from the Axalon. They prayed to Primus their comrades could be twins did not want to see the dead remains of their friends.

Watching them from a distance was the Sweep known as Flail. He made note that another of those organic pilots was going to be away from the Archangel. It made no sense why they were weakening their forces so much to him. Still anything if it increased the chances of them attacking successfully.

That they had been reduced to hiding in the asteroid belt of this system angered Flail. They should be stripping this world dry or cyberforming it. Instead it was becoming an Autobot stronghold with allies that were able to defend themselves.

* * *

Shockblast floated over to the _Revenge_ and away from the Decepticons working on the huge Space Bridge deep within the sparce asteroids of the solar system. "Slagging stupid idiots. I wouldn't shoot them if they worked harder." It never occurred to him that he was adversely affecting their productivity by his presence. And then that idiot Smashling had insulted him for not having done better in the last battle.

They would be putting _him_ back together for a few days.

"Shockblast, Galvatron wishes to speak to you," Scourge called out. He watched the psychotic Decepticon just amble off towards the throne room as if he did not have a care. Galvatron was going to ream him a new one.

"Sure, whatever,"Shockblast dismissively remarked.

On his throne, Galvatron glared at the member of the Mayhem Attack Squad. Shockblast had a strong resemblance to Shockwave, but had none of the restraint or logic of the infamous Decepticon general. There was a reason Shockwave was in charge of Cybertron after all.

"Shockblast," Galvatron growled. "Does your processor work or do you think I won't destroy you?"

"Really?" Shockblast said in a challenging tone. "Just send me at the Autobots and and those humans I'll keep them busy."

"You think I should reward you?" Galvatron almost laughed. "You're nothing more then a blunt hammer Shockblast and frankly... you need to be put back in the tool kit."

Shockblast clenched his single fist and his single optic glowed. It enraged him to be dismissed as being just a tool. The destructive, even by Decepticon standards, purple transformer sized up Galvatron. He then charged and kicked the Decepticon leader in the face.

Galvatron had rolled with the kick and then leaped from his chair and hit Shockblast with a blindingly fast punch that the darker purple transformer could hardly see.

"Damn, forgot how fast-" Shockblast started to complain when Galvatron's knee slammed into his chest with the force of a out of control shuttle.

"You dare raise your hand against me, Galvatron?" the enraged leader of the Decepticons shouted as his Unicron enhanced body started to batter the slightly smaller Decepticon, knocking off slivers of armor that cracked under the unrelenting attack.

Shockblast realized, too late, that he had never seen Galvatron in a state where his rage was so deep. "Mercy," he begged even as Galvatron's foot crunched down on his weapon arm.

"Mercy. How pathetic," the crowned ex-Unicroid said to the groveling underling. He raised up his cannon-arm and placed it up against his shoulder. "This shall be your mercy. You are nothing but a weapon that I _will_ use against Optimus Prime."

The cannon blared as it blew off the manipulator arm. Galvatron then reached into the hole in the armor and channeled some of his personal energy into a pain-field, causing Shockblast to scream in pain.

The next thing Shockblast knew he was slamming into the floor outside the throne room, barely conscious and severely damaged, much to the shock of the Sweeps there.

From the shadows General Strika watched as a few of the Mayhem Attack Squad rushed to the aid of their fallen friend. With a frown, she moved down a shadowed corridor. "Blackarchnia."

"Yes, general," the assassin said from behind her.

"I think we need a fallback plan. Galvatron appears to be _less_ stable than Megatron. How does martyr for the Decepticons sound to you?"

"He'll kill you if he finds out?" the black and purple Decepticon stated in a cold voice.

"Well, at least I'll be killed for something I actually did," she snarled right back.

Red eyes narrowed. "I take your meaning. How do you want to proceed?"

"We can always use the humans," Bludgeon stated calmly seeming to appear out of thin air behind them. "They can weaken him with their Guardians and allow us to stab him right in the lasercore."

"And there's always Leozack," Blackarchnia mused with a savage smile. "He's cast from the same mold as Starscream and with Liokaiser's might behind him could prove useful."

"Let's wait until the Space Bridge is nearly complete. Leozack is horribly at keeping secrets," Strika ordered. "After all, with the forces we are marshaling, the Autobots _and_ their allies are just going to be a past data point in the Datatrix."

They all laughed at that.

In the shadows Scourge watched the 'rebellion' and was already formulating how to look good to either side if they won. He was frankly tired of being Galvatron's punching bag and probably the only being that was honestly loyal to the current Emperor of Destruction was Cyclonus.

'Still if Galvatron wins I can always claim I was watching them and waiting for the right moment to crush them,' the Decepticon tracker mused.

* * *

In his office Muruta looked at the plans for upgraded Aegis. The Gundam was to be made even more powerful and the plans were revised once again as more information on the weapons of the GuAIZ experiment arms had been gained. That combined with a positron bazooka based off the main guns of the Archangel class would make the Unlimited Aegis one of the most powerful mobile suits in existence. And this variant would have a limited production run.

Which would be the praetorian guard for him on _Dominion Tyrantus_. They should be able to handle even Galvatron working together.

It brought a smile to Muruta's face. He would become wealthy beyond belief if was able to have Galvatron destroyed. And he would not be limited to the Solar System. There was a big galaxy out there for the taking.

One thing that wasn't going his way was getting the corpse of that six changing mercenary. It seems the Autobots weren't giving it up. A pity but the real prizes were the pair with Pretender shells.

Another thing not going his way was the rogue trio of Gundams now that they had become rogue Transformers. Powerful ones at that. They had to be found and studied to find out what increased the power of their designs.

Murata then got a video call and saw Lord Djibril looking like a James Bond villain with that cat in his lap. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Report," Murata demanded.

"We have checked over all of the mobile suits exposed to the singing on the Moon," Lord Djibril said firmly with a nod of his head. "It worked. They all have spark chambers."

"Perfect," Murata smiled. "With a bit of luck we won't have to depend on the Autobots."

Things were turning out in LOGOs favor with the coming of the Transformers to the Solar System. New weapons, a galvanizing enemy that silenced any voices against increased military spending, and now soldiers that should be far more durable then the drug needing biological CPUs or the troops that needed incredibly extensive medical work to stay functional.

It was only marred by not being to understand the FTL drive that had more or less grown into the Archangel. That it would revolutionize travel and it would make them even richer.

* * *

A jet flew from Europe to Orb. Sitting in a window seat was a young man with extremely long black hair. He had a frown on his face. Canard Pars wondered why he was being sent across the planet to Orb. He had no idea why they had sent for him. 'Though he might be there,' Pars thought darkly. The perfect Ultimate Coordinator and hero of the Solar system Kira Yamato. It burned the young coordinator as he remembered being told why he was a failure and that there was a successful Ultimate Coordinator out there.

It hurt even more having learned of the successes on the battlefield that Kira had. He even had alien robots upgrading his mobile suits for him. Canard clenched his fist. To be honest it all made him sick. The only good thing about of it was his Hyperion was going to be upgraded to use energon and get some other improvements like more powerful thrusters.

Pars laughed. His original idea of killing Kira would not go well. Of course, for all he knew Lt. Yamato had Autobots small enough to worn on his person bodyguards. Given all the other abilities of the Transformers them breaking the rules on size and mass won't be that out there.

Canard looked out the window and saw they were about to land.

Pars was surprised to see a blue Autobot waiting as the plane landed.

"So you're the other guy," Whirl commented. "At least I think you're a guy. I think Flay has a shorter hair cut then you do."

"A pleasure to meet you, too," Canard said in a tone dripping with sarcasm.

"Sarcasm not appeciated," Whirl nearly snapped.

"Neither is becoming compared to him," Canard snarled.

"Well you're not dead, and don't have any terrible physical or mental disabilities because of the experiment... so I'd say you came out ahead kid," Whirl remarked to Canard Pars. The 'failed' Ultimate Coordinator pondered that for a moment.

Canard let out a sharp bark of a laugh. 'Well that would be one way to get the last laugh on those that called me a failure."

That amused Canard and reminded him of the phrase that the best revenge was living well. Though get checked to see if his ability to have children messed up due to his genetic alterations was something he needed to look into later. Of course if that was what made him a fail then Pars was going to be very unhappy.

"Why?" Whirl asked. "Seriously what did they expect you do above and beyond what a regular coordinator can do?" Though the Autobot frowned as he remembered that several of the pilots had exhibited combat abilities that seemed far beyond what their limited age and training should have allowed.

Canard stopped for a moment to think about that. He tried to recall if they ever said why he was a failure and not just that he was. Even that man that told him about Kira Yamato never made it clear exactly in what regards he wasn't as good as the O.M.N.I. lieutenant.

He wondered how exactly he compared to Kira Yamato in terms of intelligence and other attributes. It made him wonder why they wanted him so blinded by rage that he would kill Kira. 'Though I think the scientists were taunting me just to be pricks,' Pars thought to himself.

"Kira still doesn't even know you exist," Whirl told the Eurasian Forces pilot. "We only found out about you though the fragmented Ultimate Coordinator files. Primus, Kira didn't even know he was supposed to be that until recently."

That stopped Canard cold. "He didn't even know about this?"

Whirl nodded. "His adopted parents didn't want to burden him with having to save the Coordinators a viable branch of humanity and all that tricursed slag."

"They're kinder to him then what I got," Canard muttered. It beat his 'guardians' by a lot. It was starting to look like that black haired man was just trying to get him into a frenzy and kill the only other survivor of the Ultimate Coordinator project.

It really made him wonder why.

* * *

Cagalli ran her finger along the top of her wine glass as she stared out the windows of her family's mansion. The sparkle of the light glinted off the Pacific Ocean along the pristine, white beach. "Father..." she started to say, but was uncertain how to continue. Jump into it with two feet then. "Am I adopted?"

Uzumi Athha, head leader of the Attha house of nobles and currently the elected head of Orb raised an eyebrow at that. "What brings up that question?" He took a sip from his wine glass as he relaxed with his daughter.

The blonde frowned for a second. "Well, I don't exactly take after you or mother, now do I?" She wanted to loosen her collar on her white dress uniform, but that would destroy her image of respectability.

"Yes, but you are no less my daughter for being adopted," the stern looking man said. His eyes took on a slightly haunted look as he remembered that day, long ago when he had taken in the girl for the Yamato's.

Cagalli had suspected being adopted for quite a while. In a row of portraits dating back over a century, only she had blonde hair and pale skin. "So what someone said about me having a brother is true then. Why did you keep this from us, father?"

"Who told you that?" Uzumi asked with narrowed eyes.

"A being that claimed to be Rau Le Creuset-"

"The clone of De La Flaga..." The elder Attha looked out into the no longer calming scene of the Pacific beachfront. "Yes, you do have a brother. But for his safety, you were seperated. There were radical factions, Blue Cosmos and among the PLANTS, that would be threatened by the third series advanced genetic program of Mendel."

The young woman nodded even as she walked to the door and opened it. "Kira, you should come in now."

The young coordinator was a bit confused, but entered. "Representative Attha," Kira said, moving to shake hands with the leader of Orb.

"Kira... this might be hard to swallow, but I think you are my brother. It looks like we might have been seperated at birth for our protection," Cagalli said slowly and in a soft voice. She really did have a brother.

The brown-haired teen blinked, looking between the two of them. "I- What?"

"Yes, no easing him into that, my little spitfire," Uzumi said with a grin. "Indeed it is true. My wife and I adopted Cagalli at the behest of the Yamato's after Via Hibiki passed away during that dreadful mess on Mendel. That's the colony the Autobots took over for their Autodock station. To protect you both, you were split up and were not _supposed_ to meet, but life is funny that way. Never going exactly like you want." Something the Transformers made happen very easily.

"Father, what was the third series coordinator?" Cagalli asked abruptly.

"Not only was it Ulen Hibiki's crowning effort to fix the fertility issues of the Coordinators, but it was also a fairly significant increase in human abilities across the board. Faster neural response time, greater strength and speed along with an even more improved immune system while increasing mental stability as much as possible. I think he had stated that he believed he could get the human intelligent quotient up to about 250." Uzumi frowned at that. "I think he was pushing too far, too fast. But he appears to have succeeded in most points."

"I don't _feel_ that smart," Kira complained.

"And it certainly doesn't give you common sense. I mean, you could do better than Flay," his sister said with a grin while bopping his shoulder. "Though she is only moderately crazy now in her quest to get revenge of Galvatron."

Kira looked like he was not sure what to make of the teasing from his sister, so settled for blushing. "Hey, now."

"We'll have to have supper tonight. I'll invite your parents, Kira. We'll talk of your parents. But I think Colonel Kisaka would like to have you evaluate his latest students of the M1 series. The Autobots fixed up several issues with them to make them much more effective. And it's good you are here, as we are unveiling two prototype mobilesuits and I would like you to test them."

The Autobots had raised quite a stink with the quantum computers they were using, demanding that they be treated with full sentient rights. Not that he was adverse to that, but making 'Minicon' bodies for them was proving to be harder than it looked. Earth and Cybertronian electronics were radically different and it seems many Minicon bodies were able to transform into firearms that 'bulk' sized Transformers could use.

"I never realized how much training that soldiers do all the time," Kira admitted as his sister dragged him out of the room.

"I want to see those new mobilesuits. I've been needing a replacement ever since Sky Shadow awakened," Cagalli said excitedly.

"That's an odd name for the Red ASTRAY to pick," Kira admitted. That he picked a name so quickly was a good thing. It also made him wonder when the Blue Astray was going to turn into a Transformer.

Everything seemed to turn into a Transformer these days.

* * *

Nemesis Prime smiled coldly under his mask as he took in the view of the strange energy processing plant. "So this is the source of the Null Energy?"

The five-faced leader of the Quintessons nodded, switching the face that was talking to the Unicroid. "That is correct. We have been gathering this energy for millenia and refining it into a liquid form."

In front of them was a dark purple, glowing liquid the size of a large lake. Spires of metal soared overhead, warping space and time to draw glowing black sparks out of hyperspace.

"Quite amazing," the avatar of Unicron said happily. "I'll take it."

"I'm sorry?" Quirlion asked in confusion, switching to a face that looked unhappy. "While we are willing to sell small doses, you do not sound like you want just a sample."

The Unicroids behind Nemesis Prime looked like they were holding back laughter.

"Were you aware of an item that is contained within the leader of the Autobots?" Nemesis Prime said conversationally. He wondered were some of his information came from, but it must have been programmed into his body by Unicron when he was transformed.

"We have heard of the Matrix of Leadership," the Quintesson replied stiffly.

"Its said to be a gateway to Primus himself and will only work for the chosen leader." The dark-shadow of Optimus Prime flipped open his upper chest panels, revealing a strange device within his chest. The sphere was just the size of his two fists with wing-handles on each side. "Unicron hates sharing his power, but to counter the Matrix decided to create his own Matrix. A Matrix of Domination!"

"What? You bring something like that to our planet?" They wanted Unicron's power for themselves, not to bring the attention of the Unbeing himself. "Sharkicons, destroy the intruders!"

The purple liquid was sloshing around as dark sparks of energy agitated within it.

Swarms of rotund, squat-limbed, shark-like creatures attacked the Unicroids. Raider laughed as he trashed them with his machine guns or just smashed them flat with his mega-density mace. The now hollow point Cybertitanium bullets ripped through the armor grade alloys of the Sharkicons like they were made of melting ice cream.

"You need to do more hit combos!" Calamity yelled as he destroyed large groups of the knock off Transformers with his bazooka and built in weapons.

Nemesis Prime darkly chuckled at the Quintessons. "Really, is that the best you can do?"

"Terrorcons, destroy them!" one the Quintessons called out in a panic. Avian, panther and dinosaur robots came enmass at the foursome. They were made of sterner stuff then the Sharkicons but not exactly useful for much more then cannon folder.

Still they gave Nemesis Prime an idea as he hit one of the dinosaur drones with a powerful null spark, sending it to its side on the ground. The Cruellock turned silver, brown and yellow.

"Arise Doomlock," Nemesis Prime commanded.

The newly named being transformed and got on one knee in front of the twisted reflection of Optimus Prime. "What is your bidding my master?" Doomlock asked with a harsh and animalistic voice, almost a growl.

"Destroy the Quintessons," Nemesis Prime ordered with a hint of amusement. "We are taking the Blood of Unicron with us."

Doomlock laughed and cut a Quintesson in half with a massive sun-colored energo blade. Blood and oil splattered onto the Terrorcon and he seemed to revel in it. The dinobot then threw the body into the pool of Dark Energon.

To the shock and amazement of everyone the halves rose up from the purple fluid and let out a primal and savage scream. Then the animal like Terrorcons and Sharkicons got away from the savage creature getting out of the Dark Energon.

"Well, that could prove useful," Forbidden quietly stated as he readied this scythe.

"Looks like fun," Calamity mused. "Wonder if a head shot will kill it."

Nemesis Prime took out the Matrix of Domination and held it out over the lake of dark energon. The entire lake started to rumble as oddly changed Null Sparks were drawn to the device.

"Transform and DOMINATE!" Nemesis Prime shouted. "Raise up an army that will destroy the Decepticons and the Autobots!"


	18. The Beginning of the End

Two ten year old kids called out to a roving vending machine near their park. High above them, the artificial lights of the lunar base shone UV saturated sunlight on everyone.

"Hey, vendor-machine! I want a Hershey Bar!"

The machine turned and looked at them with a single red optic. It then fired several Hershey Bars, bags of Skittles and used Hershey Kisses like shotgun pellets.

It started to feel better as it expelled the organic substances at high velocity that had been stored inside. With a clacketing ratchet, it turned into an eight foot tall robot quadruped and started to lope off.

Then a toaster ran past with flames spewing out of it as it had accidentally set itself on fire. It's squealed and shrieked beeps. Electric razors moved across the ground like slugs, then turned into rat-like robots that scampered around even faster like robotic rats.

Everywhere you could see, unattended machines started to _come alive. _

And all without any higher reasoning then animals or even the chimp level intelligence of the Haro known as Mr. Pink.

Deeper within the Lunar base known as Ptolemaeus a gunmetal gray cube started to form with glowing emerald runes on it. Not that anyone of the remaining humans or feral robots would know but those runes were Ancient Cybertronian, millions of years old and nearly a lost language. If anyone could read it they would see it read... Caretaker.

* * *

On the bridge of the huge, slate-gray battle-cruiser, _The_ _Sea Slag,_ stood the throne-like captain's chair was the infamous pirate leader, and suspected Decepticon, Cannonball. Or rather a Cannonball given there had been ten of them over the years and each successor had been personally trained by the last one.

The current one had originally been named Barricade and he clenched his fist as he remembered why he wasn't a Decepticon anymore. And the shame he felt for why it happened surged through him.

That fall was the fault of Bumblebee and the Throttlebots; completely and utterly defeated him and his forces on Skalorr for that Vector Sigma node. Thanks to that the Autobots were able to rebuild their forces and retake Cybertron's moons. Some of which they still held to this day.

The former leader of that group being in the star system was just one of the reasons they journeyed here. To rip the laser core out of Bumblebee and crush it was a very pleasurable desire he had, but business came first.

Standing next to the gold and obsidian pirate leader was the emerald form of Mega Octane. The Commandos had been altered to look like the Combaticons and even combine like them, yet they were a pale copy of that gestalt team and Ruination was a lot easier to knock down then Bruticus.

So they left the Decepticons and joined his pirate band, hoping for easier targets and loot to amass. And they'd done a great job. Too great as the Elite Guard sent a ship to deal with them. It was through a spy named Triton they had learned that. An informant that had now gone silent.

'Of course, Galvatron destroyed them,' Mega Octane thought with amusement. 'Now to raid this system of everything of value before the Decepticon forces destroy it all.'

That the legendary leader of the Autobots was in the system as well as the Dinobots was worrying. It also limited the amount of targets they could hit before having to make a quick exit. There was no profit in getting slagged before they could enjoy their spoils or spend them.

Rollbar then seemed to appear next to them. Mega Octane wondered why all martial artists enjoyed doing that. He personally found it rather annoying.

"We have found a shipment of energon being sent to a space station run by a minor force in this sector," the green Commando stated softly.

"Samples of their technology and energon," Mega Octane mused out loud. That would be very useful to them. And that would also be extremely profitable given effective the technology was proving to be. As Galvatron would be forced to admit.

"Detritus send us in," Cannonball ordered. "Bombshock and Mega Octane get that energon shipment."

The tan Junkion at the helm nodded and piloted the Dread-class vessel at the space station Ame-no-Mihashira. About the huge space station lay the ORB battle-carrier the _Izumo_ itself, the Marseille-III class freighter the Lazy Sue and a lonely Drake-class cruiser, the _Idaho_. In the cargo bay of the _Sea Slag_ was Steamhammer, Darkstream, Doublepunch, Movor, Ro-Tor, Armorhide, Smolder, Mudslinger, and Skullgrin.

Mudslinger looked completely and utterly bored. He was a bot of action and he was itching to see if humanity's mobilesuits were all they were rumored to be. And, of course, to test his might against them. It brought a savage smile to his face as he thought about crushing the human Guardians.

Bombshock and Mega Octane entered the cavernous bay. Bombshock looked at Doublepunch with a guarded look. It was one of his playing both sides that had gotten the obsidian Transformer nearly slagged and part of the _Sea Slag's_ crew after all. And he looked to still be doing that every chance he got.

"You all know we intend to do," Mega Octane remarked. "Not that it's that different from what we always do."

"So let's get it over with," Steamhammer said in a gruff tone. "I can't wait to show up the other Constructicons with my drones."

"Is the pool open for when Devastator slags Streamhammer still open?" Smolder asked Mega Octane, not caring said bot was standing right next to him.

With a snarl the lime green Decepticon grabbed Smolder. The pyromaniac didn't seem to mind at all. In fact he had a vaguely amused expression on his face.

"Enough!" Mega Octane bellowed at the pair. With a look of annoyance Steamhammer dropped Smolder.

"We have more important things to do," Bombshock drawled.

"And you trust them with drones?" Skullgrin mused with an exasperated expression. Not that he wanted drones to merge with for himself. That core of bestial rage he kept within him didn't need the poor bot's version of a combiner added to it.

"Not like we really have a lot of choices," Mega Octane stated with shrug. "Had to make do with what we got."

"Nor are most of us able to be a knock off of an actual combiner team," Smolder said in a harsh tone with his axe in hand. He then found himself face first on the ground.

"Thanks," Mega Octane told Rollbar. Movor wondered why they kept Smolder around anyway.

"Now that the scrap is done, it's time to combine and get to work," Rollbar commented.

Steamhammer nodded and several construction vehicles drove out and merged with him. He stood five heads taller and clenched a massive fist. Bombshock, Mudslinger and even Smolder then did the same.

"You take care of the tanker for energon," Mega Octane ordered. "Ruination will deal with the mobile suits of that base."

Mudslinger was already flying out of the hanger bay for the _Lazy Sue_ as fast as he could move.

"And the third ship?" Skullgrin asked as he shook his head. "The one that probably will shoot Mudslinger?"

"_The Sea Slag_ can handle that lightly armed ship," Mega Octane remarked confidently. "Just keep an eye for any of those guardians it can launch."

* * *

The speakers on the carrier _Izumo_ blarred overhead, "All units prepare for Decepticon attack!"

Ghina Sahaku looked almost giddy. His plans to make Orb become the power of the Earth had been in his mind set back, but now he could get his hands on Cybertronian technology and give his mobile suit a proper test.

His custom ASTRAY looked like what in the normal time-line was a larger version of the Blue ASTRAY's Second G Revise form with the M1A ASTRAY's flight pod instead of the tactical arms and with a pair of swords at the hips. The more tyrantically bent Sahaku twin quickly entered the mobile suit. The gray color and white color changed to black and gold as the phase shift was turned on. It was an option that would not be available to the mass-produced M2 ASTRAY which was to be based off Ghina's unit, but he always had the best especially for mobile suits.

However Ghina didn't really care how much the M2 ASTRAY would be like his unit at the moment as he launched. He considered his ASTRAY equal to any of the G Weapons and if the prototype ASTRAYs weren't coming alive and transforming he'd consider his better then them as well.

The powerful ASTRAY fired on Mudslinger with a blaster/dual beam saber. The bright green Decepticon barely avoided being hit in the chest by twisting to the left.

"Better luck next time slagger!" Mudslinger called out in a mocking tone.

And Decepticon was hit by a silver and red M1 ASTRAY armed with a hyper bazooka. The HEAT round shattered the connection port for the drone in his left arm. It made his team mates doubt his boasts of being a tough bot. The now free flying drone tried to make it back to the Sea Slag but was cut in half by a beam saber.

"The weapons here are good," Darkstream noted with a bit of a respect.

"That... or Mudslinger is full of scrap on how much damage he can take," Skullgrin remarked as he dodged heavy ion cannon fire. It was clear that the Sahaku forces weren't playing around with the Decepticons. Doublepunch strafed them in his jet mode. A blast from a sniper rifle clipped one of his wings and an another ASTRAY unloaded John Woo style on him with a pair of minirifles. Fluids flowed from the wounds and it made him angry.

Behind them, the _EA_ _Idaho _shuddered as it shook from several hits from the _Sea Slag_.

"A Seeker you definitely aren't," Darkstream remarked as he came in low and strafed the surface of Ame-No- Mihashira space-station with blaster fire and HEAT missiles all around him.

"I thought you were supposed to deal with the tanker?" Skullgrin yelled as he barely avoided being hit with an energon enhanced missile. The next attack however didn't miss and Ghina struck him hard with the dual beam saber. The energy beams cut deep into him with the metal at the edges of it turning molten hot. The pirate let out a nearly primal scream of rage and pain which only amused Ghina. It was proving how powerful his mobile suit really was.

"You will scream my name, robot," Ghina cackled evilly.

Then came the cry of, "Ruination awakens!"

"Oh you're in trouble now," Mudslinger crowed happily as the gestalt knocked Ghina Sahaku's mobile suit aside with ease and started attacking the space station. The pair of blasters were different in that one only had three barrels while the other had five of them. The guns unleashed crimson plasmaized laser blasts at a rapid fire rate.

A squad of ASTRAYs tried to send the laser fire back at the combiner with their golden laser deflector shields but it was causing horrific damage to the arms of their mobile suits. Behind them, the _Idaho _suddenly rippled from energy expanding inside, then it suddenly exploded with energon-explosive force, much to their surprise.

"Sir, I..." was heard over the comm as well as a loud crunching noise as the arm of that ASTRAY came off.

"Launch the Calamities," Ghina ordered. It was time to see if they truly could stop these combiners that the Transformers used. And if they living up to everything his allies said they were.

From the space station four mobile suits launched. Each was silver and black and looked like the new Unicronian Calamity. The mobile suits flew into the fight on hip mounted thrusters based off the Cybertronian thrusters of the Sword Striker.

Then the Sword Calamities opened fire on the Decepticon pirates with their chest mounted Scylla energy cannons. The energon powered weapons were only 35 % as effective as the Calamity's pre-transformation specs but they got the Decepticon's attention.

The Sword Calamities then fired beam boomerangs at the pirates while the regular Calamities powered up their main guns. The Decepticons tried to fly away from the Gundams.

"Come get some!" Steamhammer bellowed defiantly at the oncoming Gundams as he pulled back.

He was hit dead on by the dual ram cannon of one of the Calamities and sent flying backward in space. Then he saw the energon powered main guns of the Calamity to the left of him charge up.

"Oh slag," Steamhammer got out before pulling some insane moves to keep from being hit. To shock of his teammates, they were effective.

"I told Mudslinger and Steamhammer that neon green was a bad idea," Smolder remarked. Everyone else on the _Sea Slag_ considered those two insane for picking some of the easiest colors to be seen. And now they finally were paying for such a poor choice in colors.

One of the Calamities then fired on Ruination. The assault nearly blew the combiner apart with the sheer power. The other Calamity kept the drone-using Decepticons at bay with a withering barrage of fire. In the fog of war the Decepticons lost sight of the Sword Calamities. That was a bad thing as they stabbed through Darkstream and Bombshock's chests with the swords. Blue sparks danced off the blades.

The _Sea Slag _shuddered as the _Archangel _ranged in quickly. Twenty minutes had passed more quickly than either side had really though possible.

It didn't make the pirates feel better when a completely new and gold mobile suit launched from the the infamous starship with the Strike II, Purple ASTRAY, Blitz, Green ASTRAY, GuAIZ Experimental Arms, and several Strike Daggers. The Akatsuki was fitted with a golden ASTRAY flight pod given the pair of packs being designed for the suit weren't ready yet. Whirl, Huffer, and Safeguard also launched on the NuGUULs and the cranky engineer was scanning the odd but useful additions the pirates were using. Huffer then opened his chest plate and fired a barrage of missiles at Doublepunch. Several of his payload hit the obsidian Transformer and it sent him flying and spinning out of control.

"Shiny," Smolder remarked in a bemused tone as he saw the Akatsuki. He wondered if it was vanity like some Transformers fell to?

That distraction got him blasted with an energy blast from Safeguard. The force of it knocked Smolder in an out of control flight and he slammed into Doublepunch. The GuAIZ then opened fired on both pirates.

"Just shoot it!" Steamhammer bellowed.

Energy beams were fired at the golden mobile suit and sent flying right back at the Decepticons with just as much power behind them as they had going at the Akatsuki. The pirates were shocked such a thing could exist. Cagalli took advantage of their shock and fired her Hyakurai beam rifle. The rifle packed a punch as it hit Skullgrin and sent the Decepticon flying off.

"Show off," Yzak muttered in the cockpit of the hastily repaired Purple ASTRAY. He was regretting using the suit instead of a perfectly fine and completely usable Strike Dagger. He really didn't want to test the limits of the repair work in the arms, so stuck mostly to using the speed of the Shield Striker, head mounted laser machine guns, and the claw shoes as his main weapons. The razor sharp claws cut into the already injured Mudslinger with ease.

The wounded faux-combiner punched the Purple ASTRAY with his still functional arm. Suddenly the drone arm was cut off by Ghina's ASTRAY. Yzak cut the neon-green pirate from crotch to head with his toe claws. Various fluids leaked out of the heavily wounded Transformer and Mudslinger looked like a complete mess.

Ghina laughed in amusement at that when on screen inside his cockpit Cagalli appeared. She was wearing a full space suit but he could easily see the extremely annoyed expression on her face and the glare in her eyes. That killed his laughter as he knew this wasn't going to be good news for him. Of course, the princess never really liked him much to begin with.

"We're going to talk after the battle about you having Gundams, Lord Ghina Sahaku," the blonde haired princess stated firmly with a razor sharp edge to her tone.

The male Sahaku twin nearly growled. It had not been his intention to reveal his trump card against the other houses. Especially now that he knew how powerful and effective they were.

The black and gold ASTRAY unsheathed a waist mounted sword and Ghina vented his frustrations on Ruination. He flew under and behind the combiner. There were sparks as his razor sharp blade cut into the metal of the fusilateral penta-combiner and the ASTRAY flew around to the front and stabbed giant in the chest to the hilt. The battered gestalt bled energon from the cuts. Ruination's optics narrowed and he slammed his foe with a roundhouse kick.

Ghina found his stock flight back was having some trouble stopping his momentum and his head was ringing, but his gold and black mobilesuit's Phase Shift took the damage without any note. Still he was pleased Astray was able to fight a gestalt on it's own, though he really wanted the weapons of that orange mobile suit he saw on the battlefield.

Safeguard unloaded on the dinged up Ruination with a massive blast of energy. He then split into Jetstorm and Jetfire when a massive fist came at him. One of the Sword Calamities flew in and struck Ruination's backside while his focus was on the Elite Guard members.

The annoyed combiner moved and blasted the gundam with his back mounted pair of blasters and then threw the mobile suit at the space station. The GuAIZ was able to catch the Sword Calamity before it collided.

Whirl transformed and literally ran up the torso of Ruination at high speed. When he reached the eyes he slashed one of the optics and got out of there at maximum burn. Ruination let out a scream of pain as he held a hand over his ruined optic. Energon leaked and started to freeze on the massive appendage.

"You really seem to enjoy doing that," Nicole remarked with a long-suffering sigh while in the Blitz as he fired on the pirates.

"Hey, it works," Whirl replied in the middle of a barrel roll and barely dodged a barrage of fire.

"Die, Autobot!" Ruination screamed and didn't notice in his rage and in his blindside that four mobile suits were flying right at him. The first inclination he had was blacklight beam hitting him on the left leg around the connector point for Mega Octane and Armorhide. The misshapen golem snarled as it was tired of being shot at by organics and Autobots.

Ruination turned and tried to blow the Strike Dagger with that weapon up using the five barrel laser blaster. The Akatsuki flew right in the line of fire and sent the attack right back at it. Ruination was so shocked he didn't get out of the way of the energy blasts.

The Green ASTRAY fired a heavy ion cannon, along with the Striker II using an improved Launcher Striker. The Striker Pack had a quarter of the power of Megatron's fusion cannon and the damage it was doing brought a smile to Flay's face. With the beating the Commandos had taken it was enough to force them to demerge.

"That just slagging blows," Movor grumbled as he tried to retreat to the _Sea Slag_, but was cut off by the purple mobilesuit. He also saw an orange mobile suit with a lot of firepower in close formation with the purple one.

The Calamity Gundams suddenly surged forward and raised their bazookas at the five pirates.

"Oh, _slagging glitches_," Mega Octane muttered softly in an almost whimper.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Ro-Tor gasped as the GuAIZ and Calamities guns started to power up.

The next thing they knew was that the Akatsuki got between them and the Calamities.

"We are taking them alive," Cagalli commanded. "After all so many people have joked about the ASTRAYs should be a combining team, we might as well see how that works."

"You guys might want to surrender," Huffer told them. "Because its this or the scrap yard. Not that _I_ care if you knock offs get melted down into coffee tables."

In the Green ASTRAY, Mu was surprised to see the Commandos raise their hands in the air. He then winced as there was still a sword in the chest of Mega Octane. It looked really painful to him.

While the pirates were all focused on the battle; Swerve, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, Hot Shot,Downshift and Wheeljack along the sentient mobile suits launched and headed for the _Sea Slag_ using Mirage Colliod equipped GUULs. It was a hope that this mission would go better then the 'Wreckers' attack on the Space Bridge.

"Are you sure the yellow bandoleer is really a good look brother?" Tristrike asked Aegis. "And I really don't think the use of Optimus Prime's face as a symbol on them is very... tasteful. And I doubt it is something he'd find very respectful."

"Well I like it," Aegis remarked a bit defensively as he had what looked like a 'beam rifle on steroids' in his hands. It was weapon Perceptor had designed with Ironhide's input to have the firepower of detachable cannon of the now Transformer 'evil trio of Gundams'. Aegis just looked forward to field testing it.

"Mute it," Downshift ordered as Wheeljack used the Mirage Colliod to hack the controls for the Sea Slag's cargo doors.

In seconds they were inside the ship. Swerve and Hot Shot took point. Behind them were Sunstreaker and Sideswipe. The pair of brothers worked as a well oiled machine as they served as the rear guard.

"Now all we have to do is get them to run to the cargo bay and our friends and jump them," Sunstreaker said shaking his head. "Can they even fit inside this ship?"

Wheeljack shook his head. "And effectively fight? No."

"Then why are they here?" Sunstreaker questioned as he threw a grenade down the hallway. With a loud clank it landed outside the doors to the cargo bay.

"In case these pirates are hiding any large surprises in the cargo hold," Wheeljack stated a bit absent minded. "Such as headless guardians."

"Nasty," Swerve remarked as the explosion set off the alarms. A loud screech filled the hallways.

"And to draw them to thinking we broke out of the cargo hold with a bomb instead of leading them into a trap," Downshift dryly noted.

They then used the folded up Guul disks on their backs to turn invisible. Sideswipe grinned. The technology the humans had was interesting and inventive in a lot of ways. At least their recent technology they'd developed.

The corridors of the _Sea Slag_ were bathed in a crimson light as the alarms kept on going. Sideswipe slammed any pirates that got to close to them with his piledriver.

"How far to the bridge?" Swerve asked Downshift softly. The battle hardened vet took a moment to remember where that was located on a Dread class ship. It had been awhile since he'd assaulted one.

"Not too much further," he replied as he loaded his blaster. "Should see it in a click or two."

"I can see it," Sunstreaker remarked with a savage grin as he looked down the hallway. "Let's say hello to Cannonball."

Suddenly a trio of bright purple, green and yellow Seekers dropped out of the vents above them and attacked. Sunstreaker looked at their paint jobs and was disgusted by anyone inflicting colors that loud on anyone. They were ugly even for the standards of the Skomiloch Territories that the Cons held.

"Hey, slaggers, you might have been invisible but we could still hear you," the optic-burning green one said with a harsh laugh. Downshift's response was a barrage of missiles to the face of Rainmaker. The flier found himself knocked into a wall by the force of the explosion. Then the last thing he saw was a fist strike his face.

Wheeljack decloaked and blasted the purple pirate with his gyro destablizer. Metal Burn crashed to the ground and Swerve stepped on his head. There was a horrific noise as Swerve put more and more pressure on the pirate's noggin.

The final Seeker looked a lot less brave after seeing what happened to his comrades. Before he could make a break for it, he was grabbed from behind and then slammed face first into the silver flooring. He could feel a gun on the side of his head and someone holding his arms behind his back.

"There a secret knock or a code for the bridge?" Sideswipe asked in a conversational tone.

"I..." Supernova started to say when they heard the sound of an optic shatter and Metal Burn scream.

"Sounds like your buddy is about to need a trip to the repair shop," Sunstreaker remarked. "Maybe if you tell us we might be able to talk Swerve out of crushing his head flat."

"The code is 2125!" Supernova yelled.

"Thank you," Hot Shot said, and then slammed Supernova really hard face first into the floor. He shot the former con in the leg to make it harder for him to cause trouble later.

Wheeljack quickly put in the code and the CNC doors opened. They were a bit surprised to see a Junkion as part of the crew, but him opening fire on them made it clear he was there willingly.

"Get off my ship Autobots!" Cannonball roared as he used his laser arm on them. Wheeljack fired his shoulder mounted missile at them.

"Oh scrap! That's Wheeljack" Storm Cloud yelled as he ran screaming from the weapon. Cannonball and even the Autobots couldn't fault the raw fear Wheeljack's attack caused. Especially since the missile exploded with incredible force and knocked everyone around.

The pirate hacker ended up colliding with Sunstreaker. The yellow Autobot shot Stormcloud and shoved him off.

"Thanks for the dents, slagger," Sunstreaker grumbled.

"Oh, the infamously vain Sunstreaker," Cannonball snarled as he fired at him. "I'll give you something to really whine about!"

Hot Shot got to his feet and his hands were surrounded by what looked like a heavy armor boxing glove. While Cannonball was focused on killing Sunstreaker, got across the room and hit the pirate in the back as hard as he could. Cannonball screamed in pain and slammed Hot Shot with his laser gun arm.

Hot Shot was knocked back and Cannonball shot him in the chest.

"I am scrapping-sick of yellow Autobots," the pirate bellowed. He then screamed as a missile exploded in the wound Hot Shot had made. Sparks of green energy and purple fluid flowed easily from the hole in his back.

"Tough slag," Downshift remarked and let loose on the gold and obsidian pirate. He then blasted Cannonball in the face.

The dazed pirate didn't have time to recover as Swerve and Sideswipe opened fire on him. They made sure that Cannonball wouldn't be able to focus on one bot. Sunstreaker made sure to keep Detritus and Storm Cloud were unable to help Cannonball or stop Wheeljack from hacking into the Sea Slag's computer by shooting them.

Which wasn't working very well as Detritus opened fire on Sunstreaker and Wheeljack. The phase disruptor of the tan Junkion sent Wheeljack flying.

"You're one ugly... Do the Mario!" Detritus stated aiming his gun at Wheeljack's chest.

Sunstreaker had a questioning expression. "What the slag did he just say?"

Suddenly Detritus burst into flames. Wheeljack, instead of using the flame retardant in his arms, used the rocket fuel he also had and poured it over the burning pirate. Once more there was an massive explosion and the Junkion's head collided with Cannonball's and staggered the pirate leader.

"Wow, that worked better then I thought," Hot Shot sheepishly grinned as he looked over what his napalm and Wheeljack's rocket fuel did to Detritus. Even with the ability to rebuild themselves out of scrap metal, that Junkion was wrecked and in stasis lock.

Downshift cut loose on Cannonball and the pirate hit the floor. Downshift stepped on the the Decepticon's laser arm with all the force he could generate and ruined it. He then punched the down privateer in the face.

"He down for the count?" Sideswipe asked as he stasis cuffed Storm Cloud. The hacker looked surprised to still be alive at this point.

"He better be for his sake," Swerve remarked dryly.

"Wow, they really are behind on their security upgrades," Wheeljack muttered as he was soon inside the _Sea Slag's_ computer network.

"Well, what we going to do with this ship?" Hot Shot asked. "I mean the firepower is pretty light."

"Always turn it over to the humans," Downshift shrugged. "After cleaning out the cargo hold of anything really bad like Nucleon shock gauntlets or Furmanite."

All the bots shivered thinking about how big of a mess humanity could make experimenting with those items. It was not pretty it all.

"No kidding," Swerve commented. "They don't need that slag. Especially the ones that think putting bombs in people's heads is a good idea."

* * *

Athrun was happy to be back on Autobot Island but surprised that the _Archangel_ had left for JOSH-A. Really the outpost isle was going to be where the Decepticons would go first. He wasn't sure if they would even want the EA's biggest base.

"Something weird happened while you were away," Kira told his friend as they were in a cafe in the space port.

"You know, I got a feeling of dread when you do that," Athrun admitted. "Every time you say that anymore means something out of this world happened."

"Remember Cagalli?" Kira asked with a slight smile.

Athrun gave his friend a look.

"Ok, silly question," Kira admitted. "Well it turns out I'm not only adopted, but Cagalli is my sister."

"Only you, Kira," Athrun said shaking his head. Athrun had to admit that his best friend's sister was extremely attractive. Maybe if he wasn't supposed to marry Lacus he'd think about trying to date her. Still he enjoyed being with Lacus and their relationship was going extremely well so he wasn't complaining about his love life.

"I know," Kira laughed and then looked serious. "And it seems I could call myself Kira Hibiki."

"As in..." Athrun gasped as his advanced mentality immediately recognized the premiere geneticist from his father's ramblings.

"Yes, that is my biological father," Kira nodded. "Though his zeal to fix the coordinator's problems and not being against anything that give him a lot of cash for his projects worried me a lot."

"That isn't a good thing," Athrun muttered. He had a gut feeling whatever those money making side projects were, it bit Doctor Hibiki in the rear.

"And your former team leader has resurfaced," Kira commented. "Or there's one very screwed up Transformer out there that thinks he used to be human."

That threw Athrun for a loop. And here he was thinking that would be nearly impossible given the weird stuff the Transformers do all the time. Of course which person was to be a former human also filled him with dread. Rau La Flaga, as was now known to be the man's real name, was the last person that needed the power of a Cybertronian body.

"And Nicol already wrote the report," Kira added for emphasis. Athrun looked visibly relieved at that.

It was a relief as Athrun didn't want to know how that was possible. That AI designed using the preserved brain of the first coordinator was weird enough. It probably make the current split of humanity look like nothing if people could get their minds and souls uploaded into a Cybertronian body. Which baring murder or lack of energy or repairs was immortal.

That would cause even bigger problems for them all since then someone would use a mobile suit as their body. One armed with heavy weapons or using a Striker Pack with all the others merged together like he heard they were planning to do.

'Might as well just mount them all on the mobile suit and get it over with,' Athrun mused on that idea.

Kira smiled. "Hey you think using a mobilesuit to scare the hell out of my sister's boyfriends would be worth the trouble I'd get into?"

"Given your sister has her own mobile suit and is a lot meaner then you are... not really," Athrun admitted with a chuckle.

"This is going to be weird," Kira said as he sighed while shaking his head. "I just hope all the details of my past are over and finished. I mean the fact I hang out with alien robots to save the world is the most normal part."

"Have you told Flay yet?" Athrun asked his best friend in a concerned tone.

"This is all stuff you tell someone in person," Kira replied. "She did learn the first part, but I have to tell her I have a twin sister."

"So she got the really strange part first," Athrun said with touch of amusement. "So I guess your relationship with her will be fine."

"Oh there's a 'failed' Ultimate Coordinator around," Kira remarked shaking his head. "Just one and it turns out he got told all about me and before Whirl talked to him was really angry about a lot of things."

"Which begets then question," Athrun stated quietly. "Who knows about that whole project and why would they want the only other survivor wound up enough to kill you in cold blood?"

"That's something I'd like to know," Kira commented. It would be a good idea to know who wanted him dead. And why. It was a loose end he needed to tie. "Oh, I did hear some new good news. Our latest mobilesuits replacements from the PLANTS are arriving."

"Really? That means they finished them over six weeks ahead of schedule," Athrun said happily. "They've assigned me the Justice, right? And even tuned the Phase Shift to my red?"

"Exactly. I've even got this Justice unit set to my Tristrike's colors. Though Mu did not look very happy at finding himself in yet another new mobilesuit. But he's really the only one that has a chance of using this Providence. I think he can even match us both in it."

"That's the one with the remote dragoons, like his old Moebius Zero Omega, right? He should be right at home. The pace of mobilesuit development has been crazy, but thank goodness we've had a technical leg-up, or these would have never hit production so fast."

The two friends departed, heading down to to the main mobilesuit bay of Autobot Island, where a group of Autobot technicians were giving the mobilesuits a one over.

All four were there, laying in a row. The ZGMF-X10C Freedom Gundam sat in a special cradle, as it was not able to lay on its back easily, due to all of the vector-thrust units that could also double as blasters. Dual-beam sabers and a dual-function gold-reflector buckler and shield positron deflectors were on both arms.

Athrun's ZGMF-X09B Justice Gundam was in nearly the same mold of menacing, angular features that was starting to be known as 'Gundam' in looks. His back-flyer had been upgraded to actually turn into a small robot, piloted by one of the freed sentient quantum A.I. computers. They had decided to give it a slightly heftier punch, giving it a five-shot scylla cannon equal in power to his original mobilesuit. To give it slightly better melee ability, it was fitted with a beam-saber spear, coated in reflector-gold. It had the same bucklers and positron reflector set up.

And there was the ZGMF-13C Providence Gundam. It too was in a special cradle given the massive DRAGOON unit on it's back. From what Athrun could recall the unit was less bulky then the original design specs and faster as well. On the wrists were the shield positron deflectors. On the inside of the forearms were mini-rifles for pointblank defense. Mounted on each leg was a beam saber powered by an energon fuel cell. In the hands of the mobile suit was a high power energy rifle and was so far the most powerful rifle ever created for a mobile suit.

And finally there was the ZGMF-X999B ZAKU. The unit was to be the new standard for ZAFT mobile suits to replace the CGUE IIs and GINNs. The first unique feature were the grenades on the hips. They came in several varieties such as smoke, glass gas, thermite incendiary, fragmentation, high explosive and flash grenades. What the four grenades on the ZAKU were, Athrun had no idea. The ZAKU also was able use Striker Packs, and it even had a few new ones made specifically for the unit. It also had phase shift as a standard feature. On one shoulder was a large shield, and in the hands of the unit was the beam axe. It was a the bigger and more powerful version of the beam tomahawk planned for the ZAKU. The mobile suit also had a beam rifle that was an early model of the planned rifle for the Providence, and the prototype mobile suit it was planned for had been scrapped after ZAFT's weapon designers got the specs for quantum controls for Mu's Gunbarrels. Kira looked surprised that was to be a regular production model mobile suit and not specialized unit like the G-Weapons had been.

They had done an incredible job with the suits and Kira wondered how anyone could top those four mobile suits. But he had a feeling they would somehow, sooner or later.

* * *

"This is 'Around Cybertron' and I'm your host Rook," a boxy blue and white Autobot stated warmly. "With me are a unique group that have managed to hold back a Decepticon invasion of this world."

"All in a day's work," Hot Shot said with a cocky smile and a thumbs up with the background of the Archangel's mobilesuit bay in the background.

"Didn't he wash out of the Elite Guard?" Jetstorm stage whispered Jetfire. His brother shrugged. A bunch of decent Bots failed to make the cut. Elite wasn't in the name only because it sounded good.

That made Hot Shot's smile more restrained. The bright-yellow (and temperamental) Autobot also gave the combiner pair an annoyed glance.

"Being a member of the Elite Guard or a Wrecker isn't everything," Downshift firmly and clearly said to the pair.

"Guys we're getting off topic," Swerve interjected.

"Correct," Rook remarked. "In any case these eight Autobots are not the only heroes here. Also here is a group of the local life forms. Their guardian sized battle suits, called mobilesuits, have proven to be to battle the Decepticons head on."

Flay smiled at that praise. She then wondered exactly how many star systems were getting this broadcast. And if everyone in the solar system was watching this. Her fingers twitched with the desire to make sure her hair was covering her scarred half of her face.

Nicole, on the other hand, looked a bit overwhelmed. The green haired pilot recalled anything his father told him about saying cool while on TV. He then turned his head to see how everyone else was doing. Tolle looked even worse and Nicole wondered if the Strike Dagger pilot needed a paper bag to breath out of.

Cagali had a slight smile on her face and wondered if her deflecting a laser blast from Shockblast right back at him would be mentioned. The Decepticon was so shocked that he didn't move out of the way. The Akatsuki was going to be a nightmare for the Decepticons. Those pirates worked well for a test run of its abilities.

"A first I didn't believe it to be honest," Yzak admitted with a sheepish smile. "I mean giant robots from outer space? And I found out that truth is stranger then fiction the hard way."

That his former mobile suit was now called Shadow Wolf also helped bring that home for him. It surprised him that they fused a Sword Striker onto the Armored Shroud for the new Transformer. After Drift had modified the sword to something akin to a properly weighted and designed sword at that. He was now working with Erica Simmons on creating a proper sword for mobile suits.

"And the myth of the Spark Singers has been proven to be true," Rook stated directly to the pickups. "It is a very obscure myth that the original thirteen Transformers when they sang and worked up powerful emotions could breath life into the lifeless. Behind me are Transformers given life this way."

"Hi," Aegis said with a slight wave. The red mobilesuit looked quite at ease.

"Hey you," Shadow Wolf called out to Mu's Mobile Armor that was in the background. "We're on intergalactic TV, come on and say a few words."

_Much _to the surprise of everyone (including Shadow Wolf who had just been kidding), the Mobile armor sighed. He then transformed into a fairly odd looking and spindly robot with four guns on his shoulders and his heavy, linear railgun still attached to his upper torso. "Call me Umbra."

"He... he's already a Transformer," Tolle gasped in complete surprise.

"I honestly didn't want to show myself until after the Cybertronian Civil War had left the Solar System," Umbra stated in a firm tone. "I will fight to protect the Earth but I no desire to get into a corrosion of war that has lasted longer than civilization has existed on this world."

"You do realized that Neutrals that believed that got slaughtered. By the pit, they were hunted down to be tossed into the Smelting Pools in Polyhex to feed the Decepticon war machine," Whirl said in a heated tone. You were part of the solution or you were part of the problem to the cerulean Wrecker. The idea of not fighting the Decepticons to the bitter end disgusted him. He felt Umbra was a coward.

"Trust me kid," Downshift added in a firm tone. "You don't want to see what the Decepticons do. I'm sure you're aware of the term terraforming. They've cyberformed whole worlds after they killed every living organism on them."

The humans and mobile suits turned Transformers all winced thinking of those two things. The Decepticons proved to be more nasty and disturbing then they had thought before. That they could turn the Earth into a copy of Cybertron worried them greatly. And that it still could happen if they failed probably would fill their nightmares for years to come.

"They'll get the business end of my stress fracture cannon if they try," Aurum nearly snarled.

"We will all do our part to save the Earth," Tri-Strike said softly. "It is our home. Not Cybertron. We are allies of the Autobots, not just another subordinate unit of yours."

That stunned even Rook into silence for a moment. It wasn't often Transformers refused to help battle the Decepticons across the galaxy. Heine looked at the sentient mobile suits for a moment.

"Well I'm sure there's an abandoned colony or two you guys can use as a house if you need one," the orange-loving coordinator remarked.

"We can work on that later," Sky Shadow told them. "We all got offers to be part of O.M.N.I. at the moment with free repairs like Tristrike."

"Or ORB's military like I am," Aurum interjected.

"Same thing," Umbra noted with a slight shrug. And he was correct as the ORB living mobile suit forces were kept in the same command structure as before they gained sentience.

The only real difference was that they doubted ORB's factions with OMNI would be putting bombs into the heads of Transformers. That didn't mean it was impossible, only that they put more credit in being a person, even if you were metal.

"Right..." Jetfire remarked as he tried to recover from the shock of finding out these new Transformers weren't going to join the Autobots.

"So now-" Rook said when the alarm sounded.

"All crew are to return to the ship for immediate deployment. I repeat, all crew return to the ship for immediate deployment," Natarle Badgiruel stated over the intercom.

"Looks like our interview is over," Sky Shadow remarked with a hint of amusement. Umbra just shook his head slightly.

"Well then," Rook said as he recovered. "This is Rook from Around Cybertron. Till all are one."

* * *

"Ironhide, how goes the Autodock project?" the leader of the Autobots called out from the main entrance to the engineering heart from the Alpha Quadrant half of the human colony that had been dubbed 'Autodock'.

"We're going to make that deadline, Prime, just you wait," the Autobot engineer called out. "Bulkhead, Perceptor and I are working night and day. I'm still not sure of the refined energon fuel. That stuff is unstable in the long term. We have rules on when and how we use it. Bulkhead is personally supervising the Beta Quadrant installation right this moment."

"Your posturing is immaterial. Optimus Prime has followed the exact rules you mentioned. Energon Extract has been specifically created for our project. It will be completely consumed and not stored longer than absolutely necessary," the monotone voice of Perceptor called out with almost a hint of anger.

"We'll have those energon catalysts working in time, Prime. Promise. Autodock will be fully functional for your plan. But this isn't like you," his old friend said.

"Trust in me, Ironhide. Our next battle with Galvatron, Autodock will play a pivotal role," the blue and red Autobot said while putting his hand on the smaller Autobot's shoulder.

"Query? Do you not have a meeting with the president of the Atlantic Federation in ten minutes?" Perceptor asked.

"Indeed, I do. But I'll be using the new Land Bridge. It's one of the innovations that the humans noted in the technical specifications. With a high enough sensor resolution, you can do short range teleportations out to three hundred thousand miles without a receiver. It is... convenient," Optimus admitted.

"Definition clarification? I understood that it was designated the Earth Transportation Uncoupled Gate Bridge?" the scientist asked.

"Everyone's been calling it the Land Bridge. Sparking easier to say," Bumblebee shouted out from where he was working on a panel.

It was a quick trip for Optimus Prime to use the new, innovative form of local transportation. He walked into the heavily armored building that had been built in Washington D.C. for just these sort of meetings. The level of security and the number of mobilesuits were both heartening... and worrisome. Entering the meeting chamber, he took in the man in front of him.

Optimus Prime looked down at President Jonathan Doors and wondered if he should ask to speak with who was really in charge. It would not be subtle but he got the feeling that the president was only leader in name only. Especially when compared to the leaders of ORB and PLANTs, though that may just indicate an old government system in place. The thought of being elected Prime only for a Vorn was nearly impossible for him to wrap his core around. "Mister President,why do you have such an interest in Great Shot?" Optimus Prime asked to get the issue out in the open.

He loomed over him, even in the special meeting room where the humans were on a platform up twenty feet. On the human side, a conference table with refreshments had been set up, while underneath it lay energon cubes for Transformer food. He had to admit, at least they made the effort to be polite in meeting them.

"So that's his name?" President Doors responded with a question. A bead of sweat was trickling down his forehead.

"That is correct. We have granted his request for asylum as he has stated that he feels he would not be treated fairly by the people that implanted bombs in his head." Optimus Prime's eyes glowed brilliantly for a moment. "Such actions are closer to the more despicable of the Decepticons, not the actions of an enlightened society." His voice had not raised an iota, but you could tell that this was not a matter he would bend on. "Great Shot will stay under Autobot supervision. I would _suggest_ that you perhaps investigate this matter and perhaps do some house cleaning, President Doors."

"Or what?"

"There is no 'or what' at this time. But these sorts of actions by shadowy power-blocks within your governments _are_ damaging our mutual association. It is up to you to look at mending the paths between our peoples."

"I... see..." Doors said meekly.

"You are the leader of a nation President Doors, and as such I expected someone made of sterner stuff," Optimus Prime said in a soft tone.

Ambassador Alexis Thi Dang watched in silence as the president was told basically to grow a pair. It was a strange experience, to be honest.

"Now what can you tell me about the three Gundams at are now allied with Nemesis Prime?" Optimus asked. "Besides the sales patch involving them against the Dinobots to sell more mobile suits to O.M.N.I. and other interested parties like the Sahaku royal family of ORB."

"You... you know about that?" Doors gasped.

"Mr. President, it was not exactly a hidden message. In fact Grimlock felt if they wanted to use him as a spokesman for combat ability of Cybertronians, they just had to ask," Optimus Prime remarked in a dry tone. "He's thinking about producing his own videos about that. The space pirate population being what he intends to use for target practice. He also notes it'll keep one of his troops out of trouble."

Alexis wondered if there would be enough left of the pirates for the Junk Guild to sell them replacement parts after the Dinobots were done. It was a dangerous galaxy out there, even with removing the local threats.

The PLANTS and the Earth Alliance were both looking at armed cruisers to explore the galaxy when the current conflict in their space ended. Although, their exploration was just going to be the nearby fifty light years and the hundreds of stars around them. It won't do to discover some distant threat and bring it home.

"Well, at least he's keeping some humor involved in the progress. I'll be frank, Optimus Prime, in that there are elements within our nations that do not see eye to eye. But as an enlightened society, we try to let people live their lives while trying to not limit freedoms. Radicals and extremists unfortunately exist, along with other criminal elements. Even worse... they have lobbyists that put the trappings of civility upon their agendas."

"Hmm. It appears your political system is more... complicated than I had realized, Mr. President." Optimus primed put his hand to his metal-masked chin. "And the players change so fast by our standards."

"I can't say that. Our lives are so infinitesimal compared to robots that have lived millions of years, so we have to live them to the fullest." President Doors stood up, wiping some sweat off of his head. "I'm going to set up a task force to investigate these people. The survival of our planet is too important to let be jeopardized in any shape or form."

"I can agree with that, Mr. President. If you do not mind, I have other matters to deal with." The large robot nodded to the group of human politicians.

* * *

Checkpoint quietly made his way into the heart of Heaven's Base by crawling along the ceiling of the larger bays. While it wasn't the primary base of the EA, it still was a very vital one. It was likely to have the information they needed on the biological CPUs and who put bombs into the heads of the mercenaries.

A thought suddenly hit Checkpoint. The pair of mercs with pretender shells had two heads. Did they put the bombs into the ones for their Pretender shell or their actual heads? With the control they had over their shells, and the fact they could move all their cerebral circuit memories and such to secondary units in their chest and be just fine.

The Minicon suddenly had a very bad feeling. It wouldn't be hard to find them if they went on a rampage, but he doubted they'd leave the computers in good shape. Or that they won't be purged before the humans ran off. That made Checkpoint move faster. It was vital he get to the bottom of this mess and the files those computers would have were the keys to do that.

Checkpoint used SONODAR to scan for any hidden areas of the base. Given the Earth Alliance hadn't asked about it, they had no defenses to the sonic based sensing technology and the hidden areas suck out like rusted thumbs.

That the base had such hidden areas didn't sit well with him. It added to perhaps the Earth Alliance was the ones who had found the mercenaries. The Minicon had a bad feeling about this.

He was right as deep within the base lay the bodies of Blue Baccus and Black Shadow. They were waiting for the right moment to come back on-line and kill every organic being in the base before leaving for space.

Unfortunately, it appeared someone in charge had a lot of paranoia as the area was patrolled by soldiers and mobilesuits. Each was armed with anti-Transformer weapons the Earth Alliance was creating.

Checkpoint watched from a grill overhead as scientists and technicians worked as best they could to repair the damaged machines while discovering as much of the Cybertronian technology. They were writing off Axer as a loss since he was crushed like a bug. The GINN's heavy sword proving to be that effective on a cybertronian super structures.

Then a scientist burst into the repair bay being used to study the Transformers. Checkpoint could tell he was extremely excited about something.

"Situation Sigma-Beta-Two has happened as expected. Ptolemaeus base and the surrounding areas are being swarmed with Proto-Transformers! The possibilities are endless!"

That they weren't completely and utterly shocked at that it happened give Checkpoint a very bad feeling. He took note of where the mercenaries were held and slowly made his way out of Heaven's Base. Optimus and the others had to learn of this new development.

* * *

"I just had to open my vocoder and complain that I had not had a chance to fly," Flail said as he flew through space, weaving through the space-defense grid around the human space colony. The Sweep was keeping his sensors peeled, threading through the most advanced scanners that humanity could make.

Sadly, that only made them semi-competent in comparison to Transformer technology. So with care, could be avoided.

"Lot of chatter on the human's radio frequency." Flail narrowed his red optics as he studied the layout of Ptolemaeus. There were not a lot of places big enough for a Transformer to sneak in.

Transforming from his space-ship sled form into a robot, he slammed into the ground on the surface of the Moon. With a skid of sand and dust, he examined the nearest point of the base. "Guess I'll just have to cut my way in and then seal it behind him. A couple of pulses of to knock out the sensors and..." he talked to himself. With the sensors knocked out, he quickly cut a whole in the armored wall of the base, then pulled it closed behind him. A few quick bursts of his blasters sealed it.

Inside the human city-colony, he crept from shadow to shadow. "This really weird," he said to himself. "Autobots!" He pressed his back against the wall as he saw Bumper and some humans heading towards the center of the city. Okay, _an_ Autobot.

"Mrs. Hampton, this really is outside of any known experience. Transformer life like you are describing just does not spontaneously erupt," the bright yellow Autobot stated. "Even though the Spark Singing done in this star system can appear that way and honestly stumped most of us."

"Well they are doing a terrific job of tearing the city apart. We are in a near crisis trying to keep the life support functional," the older human said, her gray hair up in a neat bun.

"And about as smart as antdroids," Bumper muttered.

"You mean you have animal life on your home planet?"

"Of course," Bumper stated firmly. "Just be glad none of these proties running wild have cyber-venom like a razor snake. It won't harm anything organic but the machines you need to live here would be another story."

"Oh, joy," one of her advisers said. "Venomous killer robotic lifeforms. The things we get to look forward to."

"You think that's bad? There's trees on Animatron that are as tall as Liokaiser that are a threat to Transformers, much less a human," Bumper remarked shaking his head. "That place is just nuts."

"Are there any planets that aren't crazy?"

"Well Eternia isn't too bad," Bumper admitted. "Though the local would-be despots that want to take it over are a pain in the turbocharger. On the bright side, the local guardians are really nice."

The small group had entered the main repair bay of Life Support Number One which looked like it had better days. Cabling and wires hung from the ceiling and small robot life forms were rummaging around the area. Luckily, Bumper seemed to spook the larger and more aggressive protoforms.

"This really is amazing, but I just can't imagine what is causing this. Though, it does appear to be natural. I haven't seen a single Decepticon trace anywhere," the yellow Autobot was explaining. "And I can't ever recall seeing this much robotic animal life. There might be this much on Quintessa." He probably should not mention that was not such a nice place to visit. The natives were starting to be quite upset and freaked out.

A laptop computer turned to a cat let out a digitized hiss at Bumper.

"I should have let Swerve handle this," the yellow Autobot grumbled.

Flail had been following behind as carefully as possible and was quite amazed at what he was wondered what could cause all this. Yet as he watched the various animals he felt... to be honest he had no idea what the emotion was. But he knew that these animals wouldn't be any good for the Decepticon army. Even the Terrorcons of the Quintessons were more intelligent then these life forms.

'Not that would stop Galvatron from using them as cannon folder. Frankly I think everything is cannon folder to him,' Flail admitted to himself. He then figured the best course would be to lie and say there were just some protoforms that gotten loose in this colony. A white lie and half truth that would cover this.

"We'll probably need to get you something to corral off this area, use some mobilesuits to herd them. I'd suggest that you look at electroshockers to scare them off. We might even be able to make them small enough for human use in self protection," Bumper was saying to the mayor.

"We'll have to build a new life support station and keep them out of it," the female leader mused. "That's going to be expensive."

"Ah, I'm pretty sure we can whip something out with Cybertronian technology. That should make it a little more resistant to these tykes," the yellow Autobot said as he snagged a transformed go-cart and pet it like you would a cat.

"Do you think that we could come to a trade agreement? These are just nuisances to us, but to you it's an oasis of life like yours." Rebuilding a new Ptolemaeus City would be a chore, but if they could improve it while paying for all the new technology, it might be worth it.

"I'll have to talk to Optimus Prime, but he might be willing to bend on this."

* * *

The Actaeon Industries plant was on lax on security, he thought. Gai watched the factory from safe distance and under cover. The soldier of fortune combat-coordinator was glad Reed's intelligence ties told them of a new Aegis variant being produced here.

Normally this would be for pay, but for once this was not for business but for personal reasons. Dealing with Elijah's killer Gai required a state of the art mobile suit. The Calamity Gundam becoming a Transformer made that even more important then ever before. He needed the most firepower he could get, especially if rumors of Nemesis Prime were true.

Loretta Aja shook her head from the command post they had set up ten miles away. "Gai, this is not like you. Revenge is just going to get you killed." Loretta took a moment to look at her six year old daughter that was working on the Sys-Ops for the intrusion on a portable computer.

"It's my decision, Loretta. Besides, you are getting a pretty penny for your work. All I want is that Gundam they are developing here. What I do with it is none of your business," the combat coordinator noted from his hunter's nest up in a tree.

The other seven members of Serpent's Tail just shook their heads.

"All right then. It's showtime," Loretta called out. Team Alpha, move in for the first stage of the distraction."

With that GINN upgraded to the most powerful they could be launched. A siren sounded at the mobile suit production plant. The security forces fired napalm rounds and used anti-armor weapons against them. Gai frankly wasn't impressed. It would take incredible luck or incredible ineptness for these weapons to affect even the weakest of mobilesuits.

Then came several Strike Daggers. That mass produced mobile suit didn't impress Gai as the souped up GINNs held their ground against the mobile suit riding security forces. Of course, the thruster upgrades alone made the GINNS like greased lighting as they dodged the blaster fire of the Strike Daggers.

Though when he took a closer look it was the fact the GINNs were faster and the Serpent Tail pilots were more experienced with those machines that allowed them to hold out against the Earth Federation mobile suits.

"Security systems scrambled," Loretta told Gai over his headset.

The Combat Coordinator made his way out of his hunter's nest and to the ground several displays of incredible athletic moves. He quickly checked to see if the service door he was looking for was guarded. It didn't appear to be, but Gai didn't let his guard down.

He sprayed a white substance over the keypad next to the door to see what the most used numbers were. The finger prints all over certain keys made it crystal clear to him what those numbers were.

After a few tries, Gai got the password right and was inside the production plant. He quickly went for where the new Aegis Gundams were being stored.

'Looks like someone made a big order,' Gai mused as he saw even with the fire fight outside the production lines were at full speed and building various mobile suits.

Suddenly there was a round of gunfire and Gai rolled into a corner to avoid being shot.

"This is a waste of resources," one of the gunmen called out. "With some headhunting you could have been hired to pilot one of these mobile suits."

Gai simply opened fired on them with an assault rifle.

The sunglasses wearing mercenary was on the ground in pain.

"I'm sorry, was I supposed to throw quips and banter with you?" Gai asked sarcastically. He then shook his head. Not very professional of this bunch to do that.

Gai then entered the storage chamber with all the Aegis Unlimited Gundams in it. There were eleven of them all fully armed and ready to be shipped. They even had their positronic bazookas attached. Gai smiled slightly as he leaped over the railing into the Aegis closest to him.

"Interesting," the combat coordinator mused out loud as he replaced the OS with one he got from the Junk Guild member Lowe Guele. "This variant doesn't need to transform to use the main gun."

Gai powered up the Gundam and checked the energon levels. They were enough to get him where he needed to go.

The Aegis forced the doors open and made it's way into the Pacific Northwest forests. Slipping out while the rest of the Serpent's Tail was causing a distraction was a snap.

* * *

With a sound that anyone who had traveled with a Time Lord would know by heart, a cabinet with an electronic lock reappeared on the ReHOME. The ship was searching for the remains of the Axalon. Even with her more advanced technology, the Professor knew restoring to life any Autobots they could find would be a challenge.

The female Time Lord had used her TARDIS to start looking for recruits for her group. She shivered for a moment thinking of making Lowe a Lord Time Guardian. The Doctor was bad enough but he at least was more of a realist then Lowe every would be.

'Though I want people that desire to help others,' The Professor mused. 'Maybe I will make him a Lord Time Guardian but not give him his own personal TARDIS."

The Professor exited her office and smiled as she saw Kisato studying the sonic tool she had built. After all the Doctor had proven how useful those could be.

"Oh Professor," Kisato stated sound a bit nervous. "I've been looking all over for you."

"Really?" The Professor stated.

"There's a guest that came in a TARDIS and said he needed to speak with you."

The Professor just hoped it was not a future version of herself. Time was too fragile for the of knots teaming up with different versions of herself could cause. Or be dire enough to have her do that.

The young man in front of her was no one she was familiar with. "First Guardian," he said politely as he stood up. "I'm a young man you are about to recruit into your organization. But to do that, you are going to need to fix a cloning defect."

"I see," The Professor stated. "And you are?"

"Ray Barrel," the young man said. He looked out the window into space. "Isn't space just too silent? And you can't even get a decent radio station these days."

"The Junkions seem to like what signals they can get," the Professor mused as she understood a hidden message there. And considering there was only one singer of any _note_ that would be involved in that battle...

"They're kind of weird and warped to be honest,' Ray admitted. "Not bad, but just very strange."

"Any other things you need to inform me of?" the Time Lord asked.

"To quote Doc Brown, 'You're about to see some serious shit' very soon and be careful, First Guardian," Ray stated dead serious.

The Professor looked unsurprised. She actually smiled slightly.

"Also beware Sideways," Ray said as he looked the soon to be "First Guardian" in the eye. "From what we've gathered humanity has played a large role in Cybertronian affairs across the multiverse and he might try to destroy all places inhabited by us to end that influence in at least one reality. The scary part is he has human technology from another reality where splitting open planets and taking their resources is common built into his flagship."

The Professor hoped that was all Sideways had from that reality if she recalled right. Those markers would make everything far worse then it already was. Necromorphs were even something she'd heard of.

"Oh and when when the mercenary shows up to get his mobile suit upgraded, do it," Ray told her. "He'll need it for his task."

She absolutely hated it when people told her things like that. Now how far should she upgrade his mobilesuit?

* * *

Counter Punch crept along the corridors of _The Revenge_, keeping an ear out. The stress among the Decepticons was starting to build to a critical pressure. He slipped into a dark service passage near the front of the ships where several unhappy Decepticons were just happening to meet.

"General Strika, if Galvatron gets wind of this meeting, he'll drag us to be tortured personally-" Leozack started to say in a loud stage whisper when he was interrupted.

"Shut it, you fool," Blackarachnia stated as she glared at the simmering incompetent. The group of traitors was meeting in the forward repair bay, all of them having minor maintenance attended to. The chief medic, Knock Out, was busy with more critical cases elsewhere.

"That is enough. Both of you. The fleets will all be in position and ready to transit in just one and a half deca-cycles. The Decepticon Grand Fleet will form at that point and then traverse this solar system to destroy Optimus Prime, Grimlock and their allies in one overwhelming move," Strika explained even as she soothed their egos. "They can fight us, but they don't have the forces or weapons to defeat us."

"And that is when we will strike?" the brown and gray Chop Shop asked, imagining the accolades they could get for winning this battle. Especially if they were forming a new galactic order.

Leozack nodded. "I've seen the simulation plans that we have been drawing up. It's an impressive force."

"It is indeed, Leozack." Strika rubbed her orange manipulators together. "Galvatron does not appear to have noticed us. Hence I am one hundred percent certain he is aware of our actions, but has finally made a tactical blunder. In not showing his worry, we know he watches us. I have specifically requested that we be assigned to the the secondary reinforcement or convince him to move us to the wing positions to support the attack."

"That's useless!" Leozack shouted.

"Exactly. He immediately moved both of our teams near him, much to my _voiced_ displeasure. He believes he has temporarily thwarted my plans and has actually fallen into our energy-web." The hulking, female Decepticon's red eyes glowed brightly in triumph.

Counter Punch listened carefully through the ventilation duct, but they were starting to break up and might run into him if he did not depart immediately. He had to let Optimus Prime know of the attack day. Only one and a half deca-cycles!

He passed through the main recreational, but did not see Blackarachnia watching him. She watched the spy, but since he did not appear to be heading to talk to Galvatron, he must have not overheard them. She followed Counter Punch closely, but it looked like he was heading outside to work on the second Space Bridge.

And indeed, the fake Decepticon was. He marveled at the more advanced design. A full ring, almost twenty kilometers wide, attached to the back of an asteroid. It was perfectly invisible from Earth and should have been a total surprise.

Counter Punch carefully (and seemingly casually) aimed his laser blaster at the receiving satellite thousands of miles away and quickly sent his message before drifting back around the asteroid. "I hope you got that, Optimus Prime. Because a Grand Fleet is nothing to sneeze at." Such a fleet had not been seen in over fifty thousand years.

He was just getting his game-face back in place when a massive purple blast struck him from behind, ripping his right arm right off and shattering much of his torso. He barely had a chance to look over his back to see the purple and gray monstrosity that had downed him. "No! Galvatron must know- This is a trap."

Another blast ripped off both legs and sent him tumbling through space.

Galvatron smiled as the Decepticons at the construction site all milled around nervously. "Decepticons, prepare to receive the Grand Fleet in twelve-hundred Breems. Thank you, Punch, for letting Optimus Prime know... so that he does not have time to prepare." He laughed loudly as Decepticons started to cheer at the Virulence Space Bridge. "Take that trash to be interrogated after the battle. He might know something useful, even if he was pathetic as a spy."

"As you command Lord Galvatron," Cyclonus said sincerely. A feat that most Decepticons would have trouble not letting hints of sarcasm into their voice.

* * *

Optimus Prime stared at the coded screen. "It is time." He punched a button, sending a message to O.M.N.I. He hated to lie to them, but it would be better if they only thought the attack was in ten days like Punch had reported. But his recommendation that the fleets be in position in three days for a brief training exercise would put them into position early enough. Galvatron would attack shortly, as it had been obvious for a while that poor Punch was likely compromised. "Autobots, prepare for battle."

His optics were very focused on Cerese, but that did not leave him unaware of the long range sensors that were detecting a large ship only a few days out itself from the direction of Quintessa.

"Punch, I hope you survived. I hate having to use you like this," Optimus Prime stated softly. "But a spy you were and as a spy you must fight."

In deep hyperspace, that sensor echo moved ever onward. The black and purple Nemesis Prime stood in the center of the ramshackle bridge of that ship. A ship of monstrosity the size of a large space station, groaning under the acceleration of its mighty but untuned engines. It was on a one way trip through hyperspace.

Purple-optic Unicroids filled the ship, with barely room to move. This did not bother the ex-human in the slightest. Soon his evil cocoon would hatch, unleashing hatred, bile and anarchy upon his enemies.

"Optimus Prime has no idea that I will return so quickly. I shall sweep his forces from the field of battle and then crush Galvatron's life spark from his body. And Genesis will be mine for the taking."

The super weapon and the Genesis Alpha prototype would make fine servants of the Unbeing.


	19. The End of the Road - Part I

The Unicroids knew that their master was going to be returning shortly. So their time of planning had to come to an end. Optimus Prime had to die. The Matrix could not be allowed to be a threat to Nemesis Prime. That this same being had critically wounded the Unbeing himself also made it paramount that he was destroyed. Nemesis Prime wanted to personally destroy the traitor Galvatron himself, and left Optimus to his underlings.

"Finally some action!" Raider proclaimed loudly with his left foot tapping against the metal flooring of the Autobot shuttle. The waiting had been driving him crazy.

Forbidden just glared at him while Calamity was playing a cybertronian first person shooter on a monitor. The game soothed the twisted being.

"What?" Raider snapped harshly. "None of them can hurt us other than Superion and he's not here."

"He does have a point, as shocking as that is," Calamity remarked as he blew up a Decepticon Seeker with ease.

"Hey!"

Forbidden sighed. "Fine, let's go then."

While on Earth, Optimus Prime took a moment to look at the capital of the Eurasian Federation. The city and the nation it was in was a land with a history that reminded him in many ways of that of Cybertron. With the meeting place being in an ancient fortress turned capitol building. They had modified a door for him to get in and out of. The Autobot leader was meeting them alone since everyone was working on the preparations for the all out assault that was coming.

"Moscow is as good a place as any to kill the Autobot leader," Calamity said as he hovered several hundred feet in the air with a sniper rifle.

A sudden rainstorm caused his active camouflage to start shorting out. It was something they had taken from Quintessia along with the ship Nemesis Prime was riding in. "Well crap," Calamity muttered as he was suddenly uncloaked. "I didn't know that weakness of the mirage-colloid system. It has the same problem as every other cloaking system? Even the ones those little yellow hunters use?" He really however was happy to be able to kill Optimus at much closer distances anyways. He wanted to see the flare of his optics die. "Time for Plan Beta!"

The purloined shuttle screamed in from over the hills even as he charge forward into the heart of the city. Raider leaped out of it and with a loud cry "DIEDIEDIE!" as he fired a pair of blaster rifles. The rapid fire spray hit the area surrounding Optimus Prime more than the Autobot leader. Concrete shards were sent flying into the air as well as a thick light grey dust.

"Aim you idiot!" Calamity snarled at his 'brother" with a sharp glare. Taking his optics off Optimus Prime for a moment could not matter, after all. The former Gundam retracted his hand for a katar as he started to turn back.

Suddenly Optimus Prime came out of the dust and hit the heavily armed Calamity with a text book perfect metallikato kick. The Unicronian screamed in pain fell to the ground with a loud clang.

"What...what was that?!" Calamity gasped as he clutched his chest. The pain he was feeling was beyond what a mere jump kick should be able to cause, let alone give him any damage due to his transphase shift. That he could even be wounded by a non-gravimetric or non-hyper-dense weapon like a foot should be impossible. And yet the pain and the impression on his torso made it clear it had happened.

They were starting to see why Optimus Prime needed to be eliminated ASAP.

Raider landed in the thinning grey fog and fired at any noise he heard. Suddenly there was a loud crunch and Raider blasted it.

"You..." Calamity screamed in pain as he appeared, his katar held high as he was about to run through Raider.

"Stop this right now!" Forbidden yelled over the comm link.

"Shut up!" Calamity screamed as he stabbed Raider. "SHUT UP!"

A barrage blaster fire suddenly hit the pair. Calamity growled. You couldn't get some peace and quiet while you killed someone anymore.

The grey fog lifted and a platoon of blue and white Buster Daggers fired their energon missiles at the pair of Gundams. The missile barrage only enraged the Gundam further.

"Toys! They think these toys can handle me?!" Calamity yelled as he detached his main weapon from his back. Raider looked to be pondering using his new scythe on Calamity or the mass produced mobile suits. Then a Hyperion slammed into him while activating its Lightwave barrier, driving Raider through the side of a building and out the other side, sending debris flying through the air and into the screaming crowd.

Inside the cockpit Morgan Chevalier narrowed his eyes as he realized the Unicroid was still active.

"Looks like phaseshift doesn't stop something being moved by a force field," he remarked to his command across the radio.

Raider fired from his mouth blaster at the Hyperion and swung the scythe at the mobile suit. Neither penetrated the barrier and Raider looked completely shocked by that.

While flying above in the shuttle, Forbidden was trying to find Optimus Prime. The Autobot leader had vanished and from the datatraxs on him, it had not have been due to being a coward.

"Where did he go?" Forbidden grumbled to himself. He saw a reflection on a monitor for a nanoclick and turned the chair around. He fired at the intruder and gasped.

Optimus Prime was now Gundam sized with his tractor-trailer add-ons and retracted his left hand for a yellow energy axe.

"No," Forbidden yelled and leaped at Optimus. The Autobot leader easily got out of the way of the ill planned rush and stomped on the Gundam. Forbidden transformed into its manta ray form and tried to rip into Prime's body with his crab like pincers. He was able to dig into Prime's legs. Sparks flew and Optimus grabbed Fobidden's head with his free hand.

There was a loud crunching of metal as the digits of Prime created their own handholds. The former Gundam had a sinking feeling he underestimated Optimus Prime. Then his alt form head was ripped right off.

"That's impossible!" Forbidden yelled as he transformed.

"Glass gas nozzles in my fingers," Optimus stated with slight hint of humor.

"I will kill you," Forbidden shouted before firing his CIWS and letting loose with a barrage of laser fire. The Autobot leader waded through the hailstorm of blasts and panels on his legs opened up. Massive dual gun energy cannons came out and Forbidden hoped they'd be as effective as most Autobot weapons. That proved to be incorrect as massive blasts slammed into him and forced him into the shuttle controls.

Then there was a massive splash of dirty water as the shuttle came down in the Yauza River at the edge of the Red Square. Water came in through the hole.

Optimus had to cut off his attack on the inside and the Forbidden slashed Prime with his scythe in a rushing, spin attack as he was distracted for just a second.

"Argh," the Autobot leader called out. Optimus held his hand to the glowing and sparking wound it left in his side. He then gripped the handle of the weapon that caused that wound. Forbidden found himself fighting to keep his melee weapon. There was then the groan of metal and the scythe was shattered.

"No..." Forbidden gasped in shock as he looked at the piece of the handle of his weapon in his hands.

And before the Gundam could process it, Optimus Prime picked him up and threw him out of the shuttle. He flew out of the water like an ICBM launching from a 'boomer submarine' and crashed into the ground outside the renowned Pushkin State Fine Arts Museum.

The Forbidden moaned in pain. "Where- where did this guy come from?" Forbidden said in pure and utter fear as he started to crawl to his feet.

Blaster fire then rained on the Forbidden as the upgraded Hyperion of Canard Pars unloaded on the transformable mobile suit. The black torso and white limbs of the powerful Gundam were quite vivid in the gloomy light.

The Forbidden looked at the Hyperion in annoyance. Powerful magnetics crackled to life to bend the plasma bolts right back through the lightwave barrier and struck the Hyperion hard. There were sparks coming off the left shoulder, and the sensors went fuzzy for a moment before correcting.

Canard was stunned by that. "How the hell did he do that?"

"I am a horseman of the Unbeing and I am not going to die at the hands of some Eurotrash mobilesuit!"

That enraged Canard Pars. "I've got this trick just for you." The shield-barrier emitter flared to life on the Hyperion's right-arm even as it charged, shrugging off the rail-rounds. "Got you!"

The Hyperion suddenly sent his arm into a sweep, cutting the scythe off just above the grips.

"This is looking bad!" the submersible Unicroid gasped.

Canard then smiled evilly as he brought the back mounted Forfanterie beam cannons into position and fired on the Forbidden. The cannons had been improved by the Autobots and spewed forth a massive burst of energy. The evil Gundam was knocked back and fell to the ground.

"Okay, maybe it isn't trash,"Forbidden stated weakly.

Raider had transformed and was strafing overhead with blasters and a flurry of micro-missiles. "This operation is a bust! Human reinforcements are only minutes away and they are saying that the Archangel is going to be here in ten minutes!"

The walking gun platform snarled as Morgan Chevalier's Hyperion Gundam kept his shield active so that two mass produced Strike Daggers could use him as a portable barricade. He leaped up into the air. "Let's get out of here!" Calamity could already taste the upcoming pain that Nemesis Prime would inflict on him.

The cybertronian jet swooped in and caught the green Unicroid even as Forbidden dove into the river to retreat his own way.

"Are you alright, Optimus Prime?" Canard called out on the open communication frequency.

The huge Autobot nodded. "I'll survive. My extra armor served me well. It's good to meet some more heroes of Earth." He shook the hand of the Hyperion Gundam.

Feeling very odd, Canard Pars let them shake. "I'm just a soldier."

"All soldiers that are worth anything are heroes. Never let anyone tell you otherwise," the big blue and red Autobot declared.

Carefully nodding his head, he agreed. This was the sort of leader he could follow into hell. Which, he thought suddenly to himself, was probably a good thing. Because hell was on its way. Or whatever the Transformers called it.

Canard then checked his energon levels and they were almost completely empty. He was sure the other Hyperion's energon levels were the same as his.

In the waters of the Yauza River, Forbidden seethed even as he struggled to stay alive. He was leaking energon badly. It was only by the tips of his armored fingers that he'd escaped the Prime. In his head, Forbidden swore he'd get his revenge. And nothing would stand in his way of getting it.

* * *

The Transformer personnel-sized Space Bridge on Autobot Island activated and out stepped one of the most infamous teams of Autobots in existence. Though that was mostly due to their unauthorized chronicler Fistitron and his Wreckers Declassified datalogs. They were like rock stars to the more war-like Autobots. The Decepticons respected them enough to emulate the group several times. For Whirl it was finally seeing friends again after far too long. Especially one in particular.

"Roadie," Whirl called out happily when he saw Roadbuster.

"Hey, Whirl, it's been too long," the orange and brown Autobot replied with an audible warmth to his voice. With Flay gasping as she saw the Pathfinder gun that Roadbuster used. The massive gun was almost the same size as her Gundam's mini rifle. And it hit her that thing probably was as powerful as her improved Launch Striker pack. If not even more powerful.

'And those are all Whirl's friends...' the copper haired woman thought and had a feeling Whirl was the one who called for them to be here. And of course the fact he really didn't like her very much and all other things she'd heard about them.

"Arcee!" Hot Shot yelled and a blue lithe body transformer hugged him.

"I thought she was supposed to be pink," Yzak whispered to Swerve.

He shrugged. "She was the last time I saw her."

They all took a close look and they did indeed see some pink on Arcee on her gauntlets, forehead, shins, and elbows. Though it was not enough to consider a pink colored transformer.

"I ended up needing a complete body rebuild after the last mission and figured I could use a change in color," Arcee remarked. "Lancer and Firestar were more surprised than anyone about that."

"You mean... Elita-One and her team are going to be here too?!" Whirl exclaimed in shock.

"Isn't she Optimus Prime's life mate?" Kira asked as he recalled that name.

"Yep," Downshift stated firmly. "She's been a nasty bur in Shockwave's rotator for a long time. It's definitely dire if she's being called in along with Starsaber and Ultra Magnus."

That was a surprise given how vital Elita-One had been on Cybertron. It also spoke to how important Earth had become to call so many infamous Autobot warriors from across the galaxy to the Solar System. A battle that would affect more than just if there was going to be life on Earth, but the direction of life in the entire galaxy.

Kira put an arm around Flay's shoulders. The copper haired mobile suit smiled and felt assured at gesture.

Then Impactor looked down at Flay. He was a menacing figure, which was surprising to the Earth pilots given the Wreckers legendary leader was dark purple, orange and white. The hook hand and the energy cannon on his shoulder helped but he just had this presence to him. An aura of audacity and resolve that when all hell was breaking loose he'd be in the eye of the storm.

"So you're the one that's been keeping Whirl's processors sharp," Impactor remarked with a gruff tone. He sounded amused of what he'd heard of Flay.

Roadbuster was a different story as he glared at Flay. His body language screamed, 'You try that scrap again I will end you with my massive gun.' The pilot of the Strike II held her ground and defiantly stared at Roadbuster. If he was going to throw down the gauntlet then she wasn't going to show him any fear.

"His dull personality needs sharpening," she sniped right back as if she was totally unaffected by the menacing figure. Roadbuster's optics narrowed and he audibly clenched his dark green fist.

"Enough! Save that for the Decepticons you two," Kira said in a firm commanding tone that surprised even himself.

"You would have made one hell of a red jacket, Kira," Yzak remarked in a respectful tone.

Kira took Yzak's comment for the praise it was. "Um, thanks, Yzak."

The silver haired red jacket smiled. "Let's just win this battle and then have the party to end all parties." That was something Yzak looked forward to.

"You all prove to be as good as Whirl says you all are and I'm sure we will," Guzzle commented as he inspected his massive hand cannon blaster known as The Judge.

"And Whirl does not give praise lightly," Impactor remarked with a slight smirk and a slightly brighter glow in his optics.

"Slagging straight," Whirl interjected loudly.

* * *

Just minutes later, two carefully stealthed and positioned Decepticon cruisers had slipped into position, with a heavy load of Decepticon shock troops. Deep in their bowels, specially tuned gravity generators from a Space Bridge activated and then pulsed as they spun up to full speeds.

On Earth, the effect was immediate as the personnel space bridge cut out just as an Autobot reinforcement team from Tipicutus 2 were turned into gamma rays as they suddenly became one with the cosmos.

"What was that?" Lowe shouted out.

"That's impossible! You can't block a Space Bridge transmission!" Rad gasped even as he rapidly interacted with the space bridge diagnostics.

"What's impossible?" the human technician shouted as an energon transformer blew out, knocking over a Transformer and a red ASTRAY.

"The Decepticons have figured out a way to warp space locally within the orbital range of Earth and the Moon. Diabolical! It causes a 8th dimensional gravity sheering that causes an overload in the meta-stage converter. Normally, you only need five hundred percent redundancy, but this causes over two thousand percent load bearing. And it's a critical, deeply buried component that we can't just just rip out. Oh, slag! Optimus was depending on us and we are letting him down!" Rad continued in a rapid-fire manner. The red and grey Autobot was shocked that this had happened.

"Someone call Wheeljack!" Lowe called out. "And Bulkhead! NOW!"

There was a roar of a super-turbine engine and a purple jet flew in and transformed to white and purple robot. Lowe noticed the Autobot had a very Gundam style face.

"Name's Skyfall, " he stated as he tried to find some way around the jamming before more Autobots died. Things would be beyond dire if the Cons had an unbeatable way to disrupt the Space Bridge.

"We need to warn the Autobots that are about to enter the Space Bridge!" an aquamarine and orange Autobot named Gobots yelled. If the situation was less intense Lowe would note that Autobot spoke with what people considered be a TV upper class British accent.

"Primus," Skyfall gasped as he tried to hack the system to get around the part making the Space Bridge travel so fatal. It was a lot harder than he imagined.

That was when Wheeljack made his presence known and was quickly brought up to date. "I've only seen this done once by a group of Autobots on Merkur IV. They only disrupted a smaller area and it overloaded quickly. We need to shut down the Decepticon's jammers."

The purple and white Skyfall narrowed his optics behind his uni-visor. "Let's start an immediate scan for the battleships. Someone let Optimus know what's going on."

* * *

Alarms started to whoop and wail as two dozen multicolor ramshackle ships appeared just outside the orbit of the Earth in a burst of hyperspace transition energy.

"Wowza, that looks like a real prime piece of recyclage," the scratchy, electronic voice.

Wreck-Gar nodded happily, even as a light started blinking on the hodge-podge of controls in the main ship. "Fix that alarm, bweeooop. We're going to live it up big, yeah we are, with that pile of bling."

One of the Junkions smacked the console, which actually made the light glow brighter. "Huhz. Message from the top. You have mail. Incoming!"

"You have mail?" Wreck-Gar asked in his static-filled way.

"This is Admiral Andrews of OMNI to the new fleet, please identify yourself and your intentions," the woman's voice called over in standard galactic with only a hint of hesitation.

"It's Late Night with Conan O'Brian with special guests the Junkions," Wreck-Gar called out, almost dancing in glee. They were really going to visit the world of Earth!

The admiral realized that it turns out TV had made a race of robots talk in complete and utter gibberish.

"That translates to hello, we're the Junkions," a grey Minicon stated next to the admiral. Over-Run was one of the better translators of the mishmash that made up the Junkion's mode of speech. Hot Rod was better than him at it, but he was busy elsewhere preparing for the upcoming attack.

"I sort of got that. Even if it is archaic. I mean, Conan O'Brian? You might as well have mentioned Jack Benny." Admiral Andrews closed her eyes for just a second. "Junkion fleet, please state your reason for entering Earth Space?"

"Welcome back to 'Junkyard Wars', the only show on television with more heavy metal than an OZZY OSBOURNE CONCERT! We clean, we shine, we even do windows! You junk is our treasure!" Wreck-Gar said gleefully.

"Frazzit-spangler! I think he's here to set up a new Junkyard planet," Over-Run explained.

"Earth is not a junkyard," Andrews said coldly and sharply.

"Its like that trash island you have in the Pacific Ocean, only with more heavy metals and you can walk on it without going straight through it," Over-Run remarked. "In fact if we can land bridge that whole thing into space and they get a few huge chunks of the destroyed space colonies, they will pretty much have a new planet... which kind of scares me."

"There are plans, Mr. Over-Run, for cleaning up the debris field after the war. Earth is not a junk planet," the light-haired admiral declared in a hard tone.

"Here's Johnny! Raring to go and no place to go to!" Wreck-Gar called out again.

"Well, maybe they can help clean up the place a little bit before it becomes a Junkyard Planet?" Over-Run said hopefully.

"But I think we had better mention the imminent battle that is about to happen," the admiral noted casually. "Mr. Junkion, we might be able to broker some sort of agreement for you to help the Junkyard Guild and reclamation services clean up Earth, but I feel I should warn you that we are looking at at a large scale battle with the Decepticons here in the near future led by Galvatron."

"Woohaa! Welcome to the Jungle, Baby! Rock and Roll! You can't handle the truth! It's showdown at the OK Corral!" the Junkion leader replied eagerly.

"I guess he's okay with that," Andrews said in a long suffering tone.

"Huh, I would have thought he would have had more problems with a major Decepticon fleet action," the eight foot tall Minicon noted. Over-Run struggled to remember something. Hadn't Galvatron wiped out some Junkions only a decade ago?

* * *

Long range sensors were still pointed at the asteroid Ceres and had been weeks, trying to get a glimpse of the Decepticons as they worked. Even the arrival of the Junkions had not really interrupted that.

"We've got a contact," the Earth Federation sensor operator called out. They were deep in the bowls of JOSH-A, where OMNI headquarters was situated. When it rained, it poured, the operator thought to himself.

"Make that two contacts. Backlight scatter off of other asteroids in the area shows that the Decepticon Space Bridge was only deactivated for five seconds. Estimate that this is fifteenth fleet transport in the last one-twenty-six minutes."

General Andvers nodded. "When that Space Bridge stays deactivated from two minutes, start the counter. How is the evacuation order going?" For once in humanity's history, every human would be involved in this attack. Every civilian would be evacuated to shelters and every soldier readied for battle. Every completed mobile suit and mobile armor was going to used in this all out assault. Win or lose, the Decepticons would never forget about humanity. No matter how hard they tried.

* * *

"Inform high command; Decepticon Fleet has departed Point Zulu. We're sorting out the numbers and speeds, but it looks like over one thousand ships. I repeat that the Decepticon Fleet numbers over one thousand ships," the sensor operator stated trying to sound calm.

* * *

Canard Pars grumbled as his Hyperion was in the middle of a heavy repair thanks to the Unicroid attack on Moscow when the Decepticon fleet was moving into Earth space. It was going to be at least four hours and held together by spit, chewing gum, and bailing wire. Then he noticed a CGUE II being wheeled out. Yet it didn't look like a normal one as it had a gold Armored Shroud on it along with a pair of Armor Schienders at the hips.

"This is for you," one technician stated. That surprised the 'failed' Ultimate Coordinator. He then was handed a note.

Pars looked over the note and found the mobile suit was to be used by Athrun, but he got his new Gundam before even taking the CGUE II for a test run. Wheeljack took the sitting around unit and created an Armored Shroud with a shoulder mounted ion rifle, similar to Optimus Prime's rifle, a missile launcher filled with glass gas missiles, a set of thrusters like the GINN final upgrade got, and clearly had the laser deflective mirrors on it. The knives could drain energy like Cyclonus's swords.

Canard smiled. "Oh this work just fine."

The Eurasian mobile suit pilot then laughed as he was getting a personally Autobot upgraded mobile suit like Kira. He couldn't wait to use this CGUE II in battle.

* * *

The hidden research bay was forgotten as everyone inside JOSH-A was preparing for the upcoming invasion of the Earth Alliance. All eyes were looking outward and skyward.

That was a mistake as the crimson optics of Blue Bachus and Black Shadow lit up.

"Well that was remarkably unpleasant," Black Shadow groused as he sat up. "Too bad Great Shot couldn't do the same thing."

"Hey, he can save his own aft in that situation," Blue Bachus remarked. "Gaihawk on the other hand is a dead bot when I find him."

"He was just following orders," Black Shadow sighed.

"He nearly blew one of my legs off!" the blue and black Decepticon shouted and clenched his fist.

"You nearly did the same to him on Trolla!"

"That was an accident!" Blue Bachus retorted angrily.

"Well maybe you didn't guzzle enough high grade energon to power four minicons that wouldn't have happened!" Black Shadow complained loudly, at least until the doors opened to admit a couple of normal, human soldiers. "Oh, right. Supposed to be killing arrogant meat-bags for trying to deactivate us."

"Right! Let's kill them all!"

Black Shadow laughed in amusement as these humans lacked any anti-Transformer weapons and were as easy as crushing antdroids. In fact he did crush some of the guards under his heel. They made a bit of a mess and their fluids messed up his finish.

"Eww," Blue Bachus remarked. "Just shoot them and get it over with."

"Hey! I just wanted to see what would happen," Black Shadow grumbled as anti-tank rockets slammed into them.

They both turned and started firing their blasters, instantly killing soldiers with each blast. The booming treads of their robotic feet could be felt and heard for hundreds of feet.

* * *

"General! General! Decepticons have invaded the base!" a soldier shouted as he ran into the control room. "They are only two levels down! They somehow broke through the research block."

General Holdwin felt as if someone had grabbed his heart. "Recall enough heavy weapons to defeat them." Damn that Muruta! He could rot in hell for all he cared.

"Sir, all the heavy weapons are on the perimeter, prepared for the attack," a comp-troller called out from her control panel.

"General! You said this was the safest place in the Earth Alliance," one of LOGOS's main leaders shouted out. They had been 'observing' their money in action.

"Squishies! We are here!" the blue Decepticon called out as he kicked his way through the solid concrete wall into the control room. "Oh, yeah. This is the stuff we were wanting."

Black Shadow just started shooting the humans, killing them all in cold blood. "A control room. I bet we could turn the fixed defenses against them here."

"That's an awful lot of dead water-bags. I like it," his partner exclaimed even as he extruded a computer interface.

Out on the surface of the base, rocket launchers and remote anti-aircraft guns rotated and started firing at the nearest 'friend' in sensor range. Absolute havoc erupted as Federation soldiers suddenly found themselves fighting their own defenses.

And the inside of the base was no better as the internal defenses opened attacked everyone.

The now formerly 'safe' high council of LOGOS were gunned down by the armed cameras. Not even screams could escape.

In only a few minutes of work, the pair of Pretenders had finished their grim work gleefully. Black Shadow finished surveying the area when he had a great idea. "Say, you remember what we did on Pakur IV?"

Blue Bachus nodded. "Yeah, shouldn't be hard to set this up as a trap. We can kill the relief force pretty easy. We just need to find where the main reactor is, set the energon taps and the explosives. Heck, it will probably work better against these water-bags. I think I remember that they can't even take any radiation."

That set both of their evil sparks to merriment.

* * *

The mood was tense in the hangar bay. Everyone from the pilots to the techs could feel it in their hearts that this was the big one. The make or break for the solar system, as well as the galaxy. The battles with Decepticons so far were just a savagely brutal prelude of what was to come.

Kira realized it was now or never to tell what he wanted to tell Flay. He saw his love going over some last minute prep work on the Rouge Strike. The driven woman wanted her mobile suit to be in perfect shape for the battle ahead.

With some athletic gravity eating leaps Kira made his way to her open cockpit. He coughed loudly and Flay instantly looked up from her monitors at him.

"Flay... there isn't a good way to put this," Kira said with a sigh. "Cagalli is my twin sister."

Flay's eyes widened at that shocker. She had this odd thing of Kira's life being like some crazy sci-fi soap opera. And this was the most normal of the things she'd found out about the man she loved.

"Is she... like you?" Flay asked him softly.

Kira shook his head. "No, she's a Natural. Though there is a 'failed' Ultimate Coordinator out there. The Eurasian Federation give him a less than loving upbringing. He's very bitter."

"Yes, let's give self esteem issues to someone would could break your neck like it was made out of cheap plastic," Flay groused. She had no doubts that Kira was understating that other man's problems. He was like that.

Kira focused on the task at hand. "Flay... don't die on me out there. I know you want Galvatron dead, but I'm not sure if I want to live without you..."

Tears formed in Flay's eyes. "I'll try Kira..."

"That's all I ask," Kira said softly.

Flay smiled brightly Kira. "Don't ever change."

Kira felt relieved and gave Flay a loving glance before going over to the Freedom. The mobile suit made Kira feel more sure that they were going to win. He turned his head for a moment and saw pink. He knew who that was and landed on the ground.

"Hello Lacus," the ultimate coordinator said warmly.

Lacus smiled in sincere caring at Kira.

Kira felt Athrun was a lucky, lucky man to have Lacus. Women like her were not easy to find. He could easily see himself falling in love with Lacus if he didn't have Flay and Lacus didn't have Athrun. He wished his best friend happiness and a more peaceful life after the upcoming battle.

"Hello, Kira. I understand that there is a custom among pilots to take a picture of a loved one in your fighter. Or mobilesuit. So I'm looking for Athrun." The young woman had a printed out picture in her hand which was odd and archaic.

"He was sending one last message to his father. There he is. Athrun." Kira suddenly wished he had Flay's picture. And that he had a picture to give to his young love.

"I wonder if any of the Transformers turn into a device that can take pictures," Kira muttered. Given all the things he'd seen them turn into, it won't surprise him to see that could do that. He then realized he could take a picture from the mobilesuit's optic sensors and print it out quickly.

It almost made Kira smile as it showed he wasn't perfect. He was as human as anyone else, and no amount of genetic engineering was going to fix that. Some might call him a marvel of science, but he still had the same flaws and positives as anyone else.

Athrun stated out loud while looking terribly embarrassed, "We would like you to be the best man."

That drove the Ultimate Coordinator from his thoughts. "Sure I'd love to," Kira replied shocked but honored. "But I didn't think either of you wanted a wedding."

"People are going to need something hopeful after the upcoming battle," Athrun admitted and showed having a politician for a father had taught him a few things. "Also I have been kicking around the idea in my head since the Minicons mentioned it months ago."

"I was never against that idea," Lacus said with her usual sunny smile.

"Let's just hope the bachelor party doesn't have the Dinobots show up," joked Athrun.

"And I so wanted to invite Slag," Kira managed to say with a straight face. After a moment the trio burst out into laughter.

Lacus's expression turned serious for a moment. "You two take care of yourselves out there."

"We will," Kira told her trying to sound confident. He remembered the last time he tried to assure someone everything was going to be fine.

And this would likely be the final battle of the entire war in the Solar System. Kira hoped for the best, and prepared for the worst. Athrun looked bitter as Lacus waved as she headed out to her ship.

It was all he or anyone else could do now.

* * *

Work on the Dominion had gotten frantic as the Decepticon threat had gone from 'looming' to 'about to kill everything'. Azreal Muruta sighed as the conversion of a Drake class ship into a massive gun for the Dominion was not going to happen. It would be finished next month. The only good part was that the massive forward cannon that would be used for the rifle was fully operational and worked like a charm. That was going to be needed for the battle ahead.

'Still what really matters is done,' Muruta thought with a smirk. They had found Lockdown's lasercore from the wreckage of his ship and installed it into the Dominion. Everything was ready for him to become the most powerful being in the galaxy.

The feelings Azreal had as he imagined the power he'd gain were intense. The near drug-like high of becoming so far beyond a Coordinator in power was quite enthralling. He was deep in a room, hidden from any prying eyes. Most of the soldiers did not realize that such drastic modifications had been created and crafted with such dark malice.

The blonde captain of industry sat in a black chair and donned a silver helmet with blue wires in it.

And then he screamed as purple and red glowing circuitry seemed to flow onto his skin from the helmet and up into the control panels of the Dominion.

Dark and twisted laughter echoed throughout Azreal's head.

"Fool," a familiar voice echoed through the ship, even as wires and cables started attacking the Earth Federation soldiers aboard the ship. "I live! You thought to tame a god, to make it a slave!"

In the middle of a fleet, the Dominion seemed to vibrate and then started to fracture into component pieces as it 'stood up' on leg, curved wings extending over its back.

"I am Lockdown Supreme! I am judgement!" the crazed and enraged Transformer shouted. He pointed an arm and extended the two barrels of the heavy energy canon, sending green beams into a Bernard-class cruiser and blowing it up. "DIE!"

"The Dominion appears to have gone rogue! All units, retreat while engaging in suppression fire! Launch beam dispersion flack! Someone try to raise Commander Fontaine!" the admiral in charge of the fleet shouted out.

This couldn't have happened at a worse time. The Decepticon Grand Fleet was nearly upon them!

On the Archangel, Commander Natarle Badgiruel had a cold feeling in her stomach. She could have been on the Dominion if she had not been passed up for the position. There were not a lot of people with her experience.

"Lockdown Supreme?" Grip-lock gasped. "Someone was insane enough to put his spark into an Archangel class ship?!"

"Sir, the Eternal is opening fire on the Dominion! And so is the Kusanagi!"

The pair of space ships launched mobile suits at the rampaging Supreme. A GuAIZ Experiment Arms launched from the Eternal and blasted Lockdown Supreme right in the face. The onslaught of all the weapons on the mobile suit staggered the mercenary for a moment. Somehow, though, the addition of a Spark had increased the toughness of the Dominion's frame greatly as the alien energies continued to suffuse the ship.

The metal where the mobilesuit bays on the Dominion were started to glow. Lockdown looked as if he was suffering from heartburn before the metal was blown through by the Aegis Gundams and explosive decompression inside the new Supreme shot fragments into space..

The remaining seven Aegis mobile suits fired into the gaping wound on Lockdown.

"Pour it on!" newly promoted Lt. Sven Cal Bayang commanded as he fired his Aegis's massive bazooka. A massive burst of energy slammed into the inner workings of the new Supreme.

Lockdown let out a scream of rage and pain, as that hurt for Cybertron's sake! A hand the size of a landing field swatted out, hitting one of the Aegis Gundams and knocking him clear across the battlefield and nearly depleting the energy in his Phase Shift sub-system.

"Great now if only we had about twenty more of those," Sven's teammate Shams Couza remarked. He smiled as he blasted Lockdown in the face with his main weapon. He made sure to hit where the GuAIZ had already wounded the colossal Transformer.

The mercenary growled in pain, and faster than Shams expected it, the hooked hand of the Supreme went for his grey, green and red mobile suit.

The glasses wearing man saw his life pass before his eyes when something hit the hook and caused it to shatter.

"Get moving," Aurum called out. "We got work to do."

"Deeds, not words," Sky Shadow mused before Lockdown's cannons started to glow. "Oh slag."

"DIE!" the enraged Supreme yelled as he unloaded on the gnats that were bothering him.

Purple bursts of energy obliterating anything in its path, be it Coordinator, Blue Cosmos, or Transformer.

Lockdown then chuckled darkly. It soon became a full maniacal laugh. "None of you can stop me!" the mutilated Transformer called out in a crazed tone, as he was drunk with power.

Then Mark III nuclear 'slammers', a heavy ship-to-ship missiles, was fired from the Archangel. One managed to fly into the gaping hole in Transformer's body while the others merely exploded around it..

"Fire in the hole!" Sven called out as everyone got back as there was a massive explosion inside the Supreme.

Everyone could feel the horrific scream of pain and pure rage that Lockdown let out. Even with the horrific damage done by the energon enhanced atomic missiles to the Supreme, it had not finished him off. Anti-protons were powered up inside chambers while two, large beam ports opened at the top of Lockdown Supreme's legs.

"Die, insignificant bugs! Die! Die!" he screamed out in a tone that made Galvatron sound as cold and collected as Shockwave.

"Every! Get out of his sight," Aurum called out even as she fired flares to distract the Supreme-class Transformer.

"Evade to port, full power to all thrusters," Lacus Clyne called out in a voice that seemed far too calm to the bridge crew of the Eternal. People actually trained to do this on purpose?

The scarlet and white Sky Shadow transformed into his cybertronian jet form and rocketed around in a loop, then dove through the flares to bodily slam the form of the white, gold and black ex-ASTRAYs. Aurum and he were barely on the edge of the anti-proton bombardment that in actuality, only hit one Aegis Gundam and a Drake-class cruiser.

In one of the remaining upgraded Aegis Gundams, Mudie Holcroft flew in and drove her mobile suit through one of the crimson optics of Lockdown and and slashed at any and everything with her suit's built in beamsabers.

To the Blue Cosmos trained operative's complete shock, she found herself with an orange, tiger-striped GuAIZ Experimental Arms giving her cover fire as minicon-sized versions of Transformer 'antibodies' tried to remove her.

Inside the GuAIZ, Aisha wondered if the 'brains' of this Transformer were in his head.

Human-built damage control systems were calling for the evacuation of the Dominion that Lockdown was inhabiting, as structural damage was reaching critical levels.

And that was when what was supposed to be the rifle for the Dominion, the Drake-class cruiser named the Texas, opened fire with the Hydra class Proton Cannon that had been attached to it. The massive emerald burst of energy literally cut the damaged left leg of the Supreme clean off.

"Everyone pour it on!" the Tristrike called out on all channels.

In the mutilated core of the Dominion, Lockdown's essence railed against dying and being sent back to the void of non-existence, even as explosions from the fleet's attack continued to rain down upon the outside. Energy crackled as the spark actually rebuilt the area into an escape pod, just as Lockdown Supreme... exploded!

Rachet could only shake his head as he continued to rain blaster fire into the dying, shattered hulk. "We need to get this fleet back into formation. The Decepticon Grand Fleet is almost here!" This could be a catastrophic attack, leading to all of their deaths if they could not recover fast enough.

* * *

The Decepticon fleet was approaching at a desultory ten percent of the speed of light, so had taken almost six hours to arrive as the Human and Transformer fleet had tried to deal with Lockdown. This was not out of any desire to avoid battle, but to shake out their formation.

Galvatron stood in front of his ghoulish throne. "Decepticons, it is time to smash the Autobot leadership and their new allies before they can mass and attack us. Let us, instead, destroy them utterly! Decepticons! ATTAAAAAAK!"

In the command center of Genesis, Patrick Zala looked over to the comptroller. "Men, this is why we built Genesis; to defend our homes. The barbarians are at the gate and the battle is about to begin. Prepare to fire!"

"Genesis is entering final firing stage! All clearances from the PLANT Supreme Council are confirmed!"

"Initiating gamma burst!"

Inside the cloaked asteroid, generators ramped up to full power even as counter-jamming allowed an incredibly blast of gamma radiation to be created by the pulse of a massive nuclear bomb. The barely focused radiation struck the floating dish-shaped lens and converted it into a massive GRASER that lashed out towards the Decepticon Fleeting.

"Power build up detected!" one hapless Decepticon sensor tech managed to get off.

"Shields!" Galvatron ordered imperiously with a gesture.

The lethal, sharp shape of the Nemesis was in the center of the blast. A full 15 % of the Decepticon Grand Fleet was utterly vaporized, with another 5 % taking shrapnel damage and sensor burnout.

General Strika had sudden hope that these exceedingly dangerous humans might have solved her problem, only to see the battered form of the fleet command ship reappear, trailing smoke and debris. The Revenge was proving to be as hard to kill as its master.

"Priority orders, destroy that bombardment weapon," Galvatron demanded from his throne room, snarling at the sparks, smoke and damaged panels on his wonderful ship.

Strika growled deep in her processors on the bridge of her own command ship. What would it take to kill that blasted maniac?

Suddenly another Nemesis class cruiser started to shift and change into the shape of a massive, black, robotic Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur.

"Trypticon... destroy!" was transmitted by the colossal beast before it opened its mouth and fired gigantic beams of destruction from the blasters in its massive maw.

Aegis transformed and put his full power to his primary weapon and unloaded on the huge Decepticon warrior. The obsidian paint was ruined and showed the gun metal grey of the armored hide of Trypticon... but that was it.

Far faster than something that big should be able to move, Trypticon hit Aegis with his tail and sent the red Transformer rocking uncontrolled through space. A feeling of dread filled the Autobots and human forces that totally crushed their momentary hope at the Genesis blast on the fleet.

"You have any glass gas grenades Yzak?" Tristrike asked as he loaded the grenade launcher on his beam rifle.

"I got two," Yzak admitted softly. "Doubt they'd be enough for that guy."

"We just need to make a door and crush him from the inside," Aurum said as she got what Tristrike was planning.

"Sounds good to me," Safeguard spoke up. "Primus knows I don't have anything better for a plan."

They then were attacked by a squadron of Seekers that had upgraded their alt modes to Skygraspers with Launch Strikers attached. The weapon they had packed a punch, and actually made them more powerful than the old-style Sweeps. A fact that they enjoyed immensely. They were tired of that new 'Elite' fighting force showing them up.

And then literally thousands of jet corps of the Decepticon Grand Fleet were launched. Almost all of them had upgraded to the Skygrasper as their jet form launched from their ships. The colorful jet corps opened fire on everyone. The command cruiser Andrew Jackson suffered a death of a thousand paper cuts before the Nelson class ship exploded. They were relentless as they pushed into the Autobot and human forces.

"For Galvatron!" a hulking emerald and polished silver Seeker yelled as fired a massive SAW-like heavy weapon. That was Skyquake leading the charge and blew up a Strike Dagger. That brought a slight glow to Skyquake's optics.

Then the Seekers Corps were assaulted with a barrage of fire from 105 Daggers using the Doppelhorn Striker Pack. The cheap and easy to mass produce Doppelhorn was as effective as the original Launcher Striker Pack and more than enough to pulverize any Jet Corps Con they hit. Aurum added to the carnage by firing her stress fracture cannon into the Decepticon ranks.

Skyquake's elite team known as the Predators were at the front of those ranks.

"Oh Sla..." Falcon stated before being blown to chunks by several laser blasts.

The bright purple Hyena transformed and flew the other way as fast as he could. Unfortunately for him he went right into Safeguard's line of sight.

"Oh slag," Hyena muttered as a massive energy burst from the combiner slammed into him like a fist of Primus himself.

Skyquake proved to make of stern stuff as he charged forward at his enemies. A Red CGUE II with a golden Armor Shroud opened fire on massive Seeker. Skyquake growled and focused on that mobilesuit to make an example out of it.

Canard dodged and weaved the rapid the best he could. The antilaser armor shroud deflected most of the oncoming fire, proving once again how that was the bane of a Transformer's existence.

"Got you!" Pars yelled out and he pulled out a Armored Schiender.

Skyquake was unaware of that declaration as he barely avoided being blown up by Doppelhorn fire. The knife running him through he did notice and coughed up energon as he tried to stay alive on pure force of will. His last thoughts were for his brother Dreadwing to avenge him.

"This is not good," the extremely bright red Snare called out as he did his best imitation of Whirl to avoid being slagged.

Yzak cut Snare in half with his massive axe as he rocketed in from above. "Wow. With this ax I rule!"

"Pat your back later!" Tristrike remarked a touch harsher than he intended. "We got a giant to kill first!"

That was underscored by Trypticon unleashing a hellish burst of energy from his main guns in his mouth into the Autobot and human fleet. The heavy weapon smashed a Drake-class cruiser, almost coring the poor ship.

"Too bad he couldn't have stopped in the sights of Genesis Alpha," Thunderstick commented in the Green ASTRAY. The Earth Alliance wasn't happy that PLANTS had a pair of massive death rays of course, and everyone was sure there was going to be a lot of talks surrounding the issue of them. That was if there was a later to hold said talks.

The green ASTRAY then fired one of the machine guns of the Assault shield at a stocky green Decepticon who had a small and rail thin red partner. Unlike the last shield Thunderstick used; this one had a pair of rockets on the underside of it. He was saving them for when he needed them most.

The upgraded CGUE Deep Arms suddenly flew in and fired its pair of shoulder mounted laser cannons at Scourge. The energon powered weapons had enough of a punch to send the huntsman flying into the side of Trypticon. The obsidian behemoth didn't even notice the impact.

"Thanks," Yzak grinned. Shino blushed a bit at the praise.

Tristrike blasted the dazed Scourge with his energon battle pistol. The Unicronian was battered by the up-scaled weapon.

Then the four Calamity Gundams, regular and sword, attacked Trypticon. They were now a standard ORB unit though under the command of Ghina's thankfully more stable twin sister Mina. The main guns of all four mobile suits fired on the massive Decepticon juggernaut and the regular Calamities were able to wound him.

However they were insect bites to a human, and only served to enrage further the Titan of Devastation. He roared another blast to hit a ZAFT Gamow-class cruiser in the center of the Genesis defense fleet as the Decepticons moved ever closer. But the annoying Transformer-sized gnats just would not die. They were just too fast in comparison.

The Autobots and the Earth Alliance mobilesuit pilots then were called into the breach by Ultra Magnus. "Autobots, roll out! We have to take down Tripticon!" The high ranking Autobot fired a massive gun at where Yzak had wounded the huge Decepticon and metal stripped away under the sheer force of the blast.

"Throw your glass gas grenade," Ultra Magnus then commanded. Yzak didn't need to be told twice and threw the glass grenade at the side of the giant.

"Yeah, I got it. Man, you give as many orders as Athrun." The ZAKU then sliced open a door with its mammoth battle axe. The beam weapon felt natural to Yzak.

"Concentrate your fire now at the damaged area!" Ultra Magnus yelled as he was already in the mobile suit sized hole. His huge obsidian blaster unleashing a hellish barrage of fire on the Decepticons inside the giant.

"In three breems I want you and anyone else you can get to come in guns blazing," Safeguard told Tristrike. "Trypticon has to be scraped one way or another."

"I understand," the former Gundam replied.

Roadhandler was the first behind the infamous Autobot, and giving him cover fire with his copy of Aegis's massive rifle. His red and black Armor Shrouded Strike Dagger easily fit into the massive interior of Trypticon, which brought a savage smile to the minicon's face.

Pieces of the flooring were ripped off and flung at the Decepticons inside. The Strike Dagger slammed one Seeker against the wall with the ad hoc shield with a loud crunch of metal on metal.

A Junkion was right there with him. "Set it up, knock it down!" it called out pithily with its electronic tone, sounding quite happy. At least until a mostly black Decepticon blasted its faceplate off.

Thunderstick in the green ASTRAY then fired on Wind Sheer with his twin sword rifle.

"Are you alright?" Ultra Magnus asked the Junkion. He gave Magnus a thumbs up.

Then a near blur kicked Magnus to the ground and then kicked the green mobilesuit in the back of the head with a spinning attack.

"You really think human toys will help you Ultra Magnus?" the unseen figure taunted.

A bright cyan and white female Decepticon with an energon blade slashed the ZAKU in the back. Lyzack knew she had to get the location of Deathcobra out of these humans. He was as much her friend as he was to her brother Leozack.

"What the?" Yzak called out as Lyzack tried to drive the blade in deeper.

The Blaster Striker Pack's namesake weapons swiveled back and Yzak blasted the Seeker with the powerful weapon. Lyzack flew back from the force of the blast and collided with a loud clang into a wall.

However the mysterious figure just laughed at that. Then a purple and white cougar pounced onto Ultra Magnus and tried to rip out the Autobot general's throat. After that failed, the cougar transformed to robot mode of the Decepticon again.

Huffer, with his upgraded drone-limbs attached, slugged the Decepticon ninja with a crunch that pleased even the pessimistic engineer.

"Nice toys," the Decepticon remarked as he leaped to his feet with ease. "Going to have to see how they work later."

"Who is this guy?" Yzak inquired.

"By the Matrix," Thunderstick called out in shock. "That's Sixshot!"

Yzak sighed. Really, they can't tell his name was not enough information? He was a Coordinator not a Mentat.

"He's a six changer and a ninja," Roadhandler supplied as he laid cover fire. Sixshot transformed into a massive laser pistol and sent the Armored Shrouded Strike Dagger flying and with sparks from where the blasts penetrated the armor.

The ZAKU charged at the ninja, but Sixshot transformed into his car mode and drove off in a tight spin with high speed. Yzak swore softly and what looked like a blue and white long box with guns at the front flew by and opened fire on the ninja.

"They were telling the truth," the car remarked. "You did become an Autobot. How could you Greatshot!?"

"After what I've been through it was the best choice Sixshot," Greatshot commented dryly.

"Death would be more preferable!" Sixshot screamed as he transformed into robot mode and slammed his fist into the top of Greatshot. A pair of laser blasts hit the Decepticon ninja.

"Sorry we're late," Sideswipe called out. "But Sideburn was distracted by the femme with a sword."

"What?" the blue Autobot remarked at the glances he got. "She was hot!"

Then a jet black Seeker with a pair of purple cannons over his shoulders let out a shrill laugh. Sideburn blasted him, causing him to fall to the ground in a skid of sparks.

"That wasn't the plan," Zardak groused on the ground as he transformed into his humanoid form.

A bright orange and lime monster covered in energon leaped out from the walkways in the massive chamber and landed on Sideburn with a loud clang. The squat and blocky beast fired his black mounted laser rifle at Roadhandler's Strike Dagger.

The Strike Dagger's shield was raised and took the energy bolt dead on.

"Get off me!" Sideburn yelled.

"The Dark Assassin, Devourer of Souls, Propagator of Infinity shall destroy you all!" the deranged Decepticon called out spitting energon from his mouth.

"Shut up Blip," Ultra Magnus remarked as he fired his shoulder missiles at the maniac.

The deranged Decepticon was knocked off Sideburn and looked annoyed. He then got a double barrel blast and was sent flying over Zardak.

The obsidian Seeker fired at the leader of the invading force of Autobots.

The lavender missile was barely dodged by Ultra Magnus and hit Trypticon. The explosion, flying shrapnel, and the titanic Decepticon's roar made it clear his internal parts were not as armored as his hide was.

Yzak felt hope that they might be able to win at that. With renewed hope he charged forward with his massive ax and drove into Trypticon. Once more the titan howled in pain.

"Forward!" he called out.

Sideswipe retracted a hand and a piledriver came out. He slammed it into the ground and tore through the armored floor. Trypticon's growls of pain were music to Sideswipe's audio receptors.

That was not a sound the Decepticons like to hear however. Frankly it almost terrified them.

Arrows began flying through the air, striking at the innards of Trypticon. Several of the shots narrowly missed the Mobile suits and other Autobots. Sixshot was grazed by several of the arrows.

"Hey give me some warning next time Atomizer!" Roadhandler yelled.

"I didn't hit anyone," a brass, crimson, and silver Autobot remarked. "Well at least on our side."

Ultra Magnus shook his head. "I really should have taken that tricursed crossbow from him."

"No kidding," Sideburn muttered.

"He won't need it when I'm done," Sixshot growled as he transformed into jet mode and strafed Atomizer.

The crackshot Autobot took several blasts as he tried to roll away from the Decepticon sixchanger.

"AHHHHH!" Atomizer howled in pain.

"Don't worry about the pain... it's about to get a whole lot worse," Sixshot cackled with glee.

Greatshot transformed into his gun mode and unloaded a barrage of fire. Ultra Magnus and Sideswipe joined in and Sixshot was barrel rolling to avoid being hit.

"The rest of you go!" Ultra Magnus ordered. "We'll hold off Sixshot. Gut Trypticon!"

"Die!" Trypticon roared.

"Looks like he doesn't like that idea at all," Roadhandler remarked to cover how much that scared him. Having a mobile suit for a pseudo bulk body wasn't as reassuring as he'd like right now. Then again he was using a mass produced one and not one of the premium one like Heine's or a Gundam.

Yzak didn't need to be told twice and made his own doorway with his axe.

The passageways were still thankfully big enough for the mobile suits to use and Yzak figured it was so when Trypticon transformed they didn't have to worry about anyone inside being crushed.

Thunderstick opened fire on the Energon lines of Trypticon. The beastly Decepticon howled in pain and cut off sections before they exploded.

"Figured he'd be using the more potent and explosive blends," the gold and blue Minicon remarked with satisfaction.

Out of the smoke came a purple and bone white three headed dragon, spitting bright green acid from each of his mouths.

"Great. The president of Six Shot's fanclub," Sideburn groused before being grazed by one of the acid balls on the shoulder. He yelped in pain as it cut through his armored hide.

"I think he's as big as Grimlock," Yzak warned as he opened fire on Hun-Grr.

A roar of engines was heard coming towards them, dopplering as got closer.

"Now what?" Yzak groused as five ground vehicle Decepticons charged at them. With the black cargo truck in the lead.

"Stunticons," Thunderstrike stated as he opened fire on the rough and tumble combiner team.

"Great," Tristrike muttered as he gave the Green Astray cover fire. The energy fire didn't seem to be stopping the five heavy metal maniacs as they swerved to avoid it.

"Talk about being between a rock and a hard place," Sideburn muttered.

"Leave it to me!" Safeguard yelled and unloaded on Motormaster. The self proclaimed King of the Road had his windows and tires blown out by the force of the attack.

"You aren't stopping me that easily!" Hun-Grr growled out of all three mouths.

"We'll see slagger," Safeguard called out trying to sound confident.

"Not if I get them first," Motormaster snarled.

"Oh shut up," Hun-Grr snapped at his fellow combiner commander. "Your 'rivalry' with Optimus Prime is a joke."

"Well there goes any chance of us beating them," Deadend stated morosely.

Wildride ignored his pessimistic teammate and slammed head on into the ZAKU. High speed metal met phase shifted cyberium covered alloys. The Stunticon came out the worse of the pair.

"Phase shift is meant to stop bullets and other projectile weapons," Tristrike commented. "You're not faster than a speeding bullet."

"Enough banter," Huffer called out as he hammered Rippersnapper. The snarling white humanoid sharkbot really didn't like being beaten on by a knock off combiner.

"Die!" he growled as he got up. Huffer knocked him down again.

"Too bad I can't do this all day," the pessimistic Autobot grumbled. "It might actually be fun!"

"Well, that scares me," Greatshot commented.

"Hey I can enjoy myself," Huffer snapped as he kicked Sinnertwin into the air. Atomizer let fly a barrage of arrows into the Oruthusian looking Decepticon.

The orange and blue two headed canidae looked like a pincushion, and let a snarl of rage with fluid flying from his snouts. Greatshot transformed into his rhino form and gored into the sadistic Con. A bone crunching sound filled the air as the horn worked deeper into the Con's body.

"Stop the Stunticons from merging," he called out.

"Easier said than done," Safeguard remarked as he flew into battle against Motormaster. The combiner commander growled and opened fire on the Autobot.

"Die," Motormaster growled.

"Fat chance Motorbreath!" Safeguard shot back. Motormaster had a gut feeling that nickname was going stick if he didn't kill all the Autobots that heard it right here and now.

"Kill them all," Motormaster snapped to his troops. "Crush them into scrap metal!"

Roadhandler wished he had the ZAKU's rifle or huge axe as he tried to hit Wildride. The crazy con drove like a maniac and fired back at the GINN II.

"I should be able to hurt you!" Wildride cackled as the older mobile suit as it lacked the phase shift and heavier amount of Cyberium armor of the ZAKU. His scatter blaster torn into the mobile suit with noises that excited him. He aimed for where Sixshot had already damaged the armor to inflict even more destruction.

His eager and twisted enjoyment was clear on his face and Thunderstick didn't like that look so he blasted the dark grey and red Stunticon.

"Keep the scrap away from my friend you glitched hard drive!"

"How impolite," Cutthroat growled. "Going to change that forever."

"Like you know what polite means," Sideburn called out before blasting the savage Decepticon.

Thunderstick joined in and Cutthroat found himself in need of help.

Yet none was coming as none of his fellow Cons were able to disengage from other Autobots or humans and frankly didn't want to.

"Stunticons," Motormaster yelled. "Merge into..."

Yzak tried to gut the combiner leader but barely missed.

"Menasor!" the gestalt called out.

Yzak put full power into his blasters and unleashed a hellish burst of laser fire at Menasor. The combiner was staggered and enraged by the attack with wounds on his chest leaking fluids.

However that was it and he violently slammed the ZAKU against the walls of Trypticon. Yzak responded by shoving his axe into somewhere that'd be very uncomfortable on a human being. Menasor had a pained expression and clenched his fist. The Blaster Striker Pack laser cannons pivoted up and unleashed a barrage right in Menasor's face. The giant robot was stunned and Safeguard took that opening to hit Menasor with his primary weapon at full power.

The sound of Menasor slamming into the ground echoed throughout the cavernous interior of Trypticon. Roadhandler flew in and shoved his sword through Menasor's head. Though the right optic in fact.

"Not quite was Starsaber would do, but pretty amazing nonetheless," Thunderstick remarked. "Just hope you got him pinned to the floor."

"He better if he doesn't want to be killed by him," Huffer interjected as he grappled with Hun-Grr.

"No kidding," Sideburn set the gunk and various fluids on Blot's exterior ablaze. "Huh. Didn't think that plan would work."

Blot ran screaming away from the Autobots and humans like a maniac on fire.

"Think that will be enough proof for Landfill to actually clean himself more?" Roadhandler mused outloud.

"If it doesn't nothing will," Huffer stated firmly. Yzak mentally put Landfill under the title stinky bot.

"Enough jawing," Safeguard yelled as he flew forward. "We got to take out this beast!"

"Menasor kill you all," the gestalt yelled as he was literally stuck to the floor and found the sword too small for him to easily grab the handle.

Before Hun-Grr and his troops could react a second wave of Autobots and humans attacked.

"We'll kill you all!" the number Sixshot fanboy growled as he fought TriStrike.

"Good luck on that," Sideburn called out before transforming to his car mode and burning rubber.

The gestalt let out a horrific scream of rage that echoed nearly as much as his fall had. The invading Autobots and humans put being afraid of that for when there was a later. Now they had bigger things to deal with as the internal defenses of Trypticon could target them as a threat as there were no more allies present.

"We need to get to one of the Rossum's Trinity parts," Roadbuster called out.

"So spark, cerebral module or transformation cog," Yzak stated. "So which one is the closest?"

"If Trypticon's inner workings are the same as a usual Transformer," Huffer commented. "A bit of a big if there, then the closest thing we got is his cerebral module."

"And give him the worst headache he's ever had," Sideburn quipped.

Suddenly there was an explosion and Sideswipe flew out of it and crashed in front of them. His exterior was covered in cuts, dents, and his paint job looked battered.

"I am not done yet slagger!" he growled before flying back through the hole with his pile drivers out.

Sideburn floored it as he went full speed through Trypticon. The others took to the air with Safeguard.

Purple tanks came out of the walls and opened fire on them. Sideburn literally drove through them without stopping. Yzak sliced through them like a hot knife through butter with his axe. Arows flew as Atomizer let loose on the drones. Huffer smashed any of the stragglers. He was not impressed with these drones that were literally driving turrets. Frankly, he'd seen nastier things in Wheeljack's lab.

Sideburn was in the distance going full speed toward a massive Gundam sized armor door. With a black Con on one side of the door behind a weapons array and a purple Con on the other side of it with an equally lethal looking weapons array.

"Oh slag," Sideburn got out before Wipe-Out and Fill-Tilt opened fire. Safeguard, Roadbuster and Thunderstick saw a smoking and damaged blue car fly past them. Safeguard grabbed the damaged Sideburn out of the air.

"Ouch," Atomizer remarked as he got to see the extent of the damage done to Sideburn.

Yzak opened fire on the pair of Cons as Thunderstick and Roadhandler added into the barrage. Huffer took advantage of that distraction to detach his drones. The miniature linear tank, APC, Skygrasper and helicopter made a way in the vents.

"Be glad I have some idea how to do this," Atomizer muttered as he sealed the worst of Sideburn's wounds with a welding torch that came out of his left hand.

"Thanks," Sideburn told him softly.

"No problem, though I'm sure Ratchet will think my work wasn't that good," Atomizer replied.

"He's not here right now," Sideburn commented. "You are."

Huffer looked like he'd be sick, and mentally had his drones go even faster. They burst out of the vents above Wipe-Out and Full-Tilt and caught the pair by complete surprise. Safeguard rushed Wipe-Out, and Roadbuster used his Armor Shroud's machine gun on Wipe Out.

Yzak tossed another regular grenade at the massive armored door. Huffer remerged with his drones and punched through the door. Inside was literally Trypticon's brain.

Seeing this as the perfect chance, Thunderstick fired his pair of missiles into the central processor of Trypticon. The giant shook like an 8.5 earthquake.

"GGGGGGGGGGAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" the titanic Decepticon screamed in pure anguish.

And then the lights died. One moment they were on and the next the ship was pitch black.

"One down, a lot more to go!" Yzak called out.

"Let's get to that then," Safeguard said feeling a bit of hope this might actually be winnable.

* * *

"It is time! Sweep! To me!" Galvatron called out even as his private elevator lifted him to the battered roof of the Nemesis. He transformed into his gun-alt mode and then built up a huge, antimatter charge, blowing up a Drake-class cruiser in one shot. He mecha-morphed back into his robotic form. "Crush them!" he shouted, fist raised high.

Captain Murrue Ramius gripped the hand-rests of her command chair. "Continue the bombardment. Kira, Flay; it's up to you to stop that maniac-"

"Message from Autodock! It's Optimus Prime!" Mirallia called out.

Murrue tapped a control on her chair, bringing up a hologram screen. "Optimus."

"I am transmitting coordinate for three special Decepticon ships that must be destroyed. They are blocking any Space Bridges from forming. But I need your mobilesuits to continue their attack on Galvatron. If he falls, the Decepticons will start to battle among themselves," the red and blue Autobot leader said, even as the colony he was in quaked under the onslaught of Decepticon firepower.

"I couldn't recall them any ways. Coordinates accepted. I hope this is worth it." The captain tapped a button to disconnect. "Vector change, up ten degree and to port thirty one. Full power to engines."

Across the fleet, humans and Autobots were surprised when the Archangel suddenly roared to full speed on massive thrusters... seeming fleeing the battle.

Galvatron saw the hated ship dodging his cannon and frowned. That ship would be at the center of any-

So the emerald green blast that nearly hit him was quite distracting. Just like it was supposed to.

"Let's do it like we planned," Kira called out, even as the Freedom nearly flickered out of the way of Galvatron's return blast.

The METEOR units were disengaged and firing into the Nemesis, distracting the anti-air flak from the heavy Decepticon cruiser. They disgorged hundreds of micromissiles, blanketing the ship in explosions.

Athrun nodded, even as Justice blocked several shots from a seeker. He suddenly charged forward and much faster than the Unicroid enhanced Decepticon could have believed, chopped it in half with both hand beamsabers. "I've got your back, Kira! Take him out!"

The Justice's flight pack rocketed off and then cut another Seeker in half, transformed into a Microbot-sized robot, it's Quantum AI firing rapidly with a rifle before returning to the support Athrun.

"Good job, Halo-Wing," Athrun said with a grin.

"Thanks!" the little human-AI shouted out gleefully.

Flay and Cagalli where firing in a pincer, trapping another Sweep in their sights and blasting him to pieces. He'd probably survive, but he was definitely out of the battle for know.

Six Sweeps were trying to swarm Kira in the Freedom, only to miss the crazily spinning and dodging mobilesuit that should have been far too large for those moves.

"Quantum targeting active!" Kira ordered the Virtual Intelligence. In his minds-eye, targeting reticules flashed to live across the different joints of the Sweeps. The Freedom then lowered six cannons into position and started to rapid-fire plasma beams, railgun slugs and high intensity lasers.

"What!?" the leader of this group of Sweeps managed to scream before the Freedom wiped him and his team off the battlefield.

"Recall METEOR units It's time to end this!" Kira called out, his face very serious.

The remote weapons had been hammering at smoking and bleeding wreck of the Nemesis, but the cruiser was still pouring out massive firepower.

That was the opening that Flay had been waiting for. "You murdered my father," Flay snarled as she felt a wellspring of anger... of will... exploded within her; a SEED of destiny and rage. "Now die!"

Galvatron actually laughed deeply from the amusement of this simple and blatant attack, only to barely block three swipes from the Strike II's beams sabers. Suddenly, this mobilesuit was actually a threat to him. It had speed beforehand, but now it had super-human agility and ferocity. He ignored a slight burning of three spikes that had appeared in his back during the fight, their purple-energon disruption passing into his body.

"Bunch of immature humans think they can hurt me where so many others have failed? This will be amusement for Vorns to come!" the Decepticon leader declared with bravado, starting to feel something was off in this fight's tempo.

The Unicronian enhanced Transformer then fired back at the Strike II. It his complete and utter shock his purple energy blast reflected off the shield of the mobilesuit and struck him head on, shattering his shoulder armor. Inside the gold and pink mobilesuit Flay had a slight smile. It never got old to see Decepticons get hit with their own energy attacks off that laser reflective material.

Kira then unloaded on Galvatron with the full power of the Freedom's weapons and those on his METEOR unit. The mobile suit was even more powerful than Heine's and the METEOR weapons support system was devastating. The hellish barrage of railguns, energy cannons and missiles visibly damaged the Emperor of Destruction. There was only one other Transformer anyone expected to also be able to survive that sort assault and that was Nemesis Prime.

"I wonder if he still thinks this is comedy?" Athrun grimly stated to his human AI partner.

Galvatron collided with a large chunk of space debris and actually laughed. "I might get some satisfaction out of killing them."

Athrun lit the leg beam blades and launched his assault on Galvatron. Only at the last moment was the Decepticon leader able to avoid having his head removed by flying under the beam. His "crown" on his head was cut clean off, and the space debris was cut into two, like both were made of a soft cheese.

"Still think we aren't powerful enough?" Flay called out in a mocking tone. In the hands of the Strike II was a dual blade beam saber. With a quick and easy motion she sliced off Cyclonus's wings...and his lower body. With a mighty kick she sent Cyclonus's upper body into Galvatron like she was playing kick the can.

Then with a roar Galvatron yelled. "Not while I still function will I allow humans to defeat my Decepticons!"

That was enough to show the pilots that Galvatron was finally taking them seriously.

Athrun pulled out the pair of beam boomerangs on the shoulders and switched them over to being beamsabers. His experience with the Aegis's quad beamsabers made the two in hand, and the two leg beam blades very comfortable to him.

Galvatron attempted to keep his distance from the Justice as he seemed to be more of a melee ranged warrior.

The Strike II was instantly on him as Flay poured on the speed with the Shield Striker Pack. An insane smile was plastered on her face as she went in for the kill as she was still in that strange Zen state of perfect fighting.

Galvatron leaped onto the arm of the pink and gold mobile suit and put his hand on the surface and channeled his spark energy. Emerald sparks arced across the outside and inside of the mobile. Flay was caught flat footed and then was hit by a mind numbing surge of pain.

"I will not die to the likes of you!" Galvatron growled so hard it nearly crashed his vocalizer. He then was hit by the Akatsuki's high energy beam cannon.

That knocked him off the Strike II and the electric arcs stopped. Flay panted and she became aware she wasn't in pain anymore.

"Are you alright?" Kira asked his love with concern.

"I'm fine. I'm alright," Flay got out. "He just got me by surprise with that attack."

Kira gave her a look of concern and caring before cutting the connection.

Galvatron was then hammered by fire from the METEOR weapons system and while his attention was on dealing with that, the Freedom flew in and slashed him before flying away from the Emperor of Destruction.

As the Decepticon leader was dealing with that, the Strike II flew by and strafed him with the minirifles from above. The shots seemed to only enrage Galvatron further and further. He then fired his laser cannon wildly at the four mobile suits as he let out a bellow of rage that the four could feel in their hearts.

"We got him fighting blindly," Cagalli called out as she had her mobile suit get between Galvatron and the others. The energy blasts deflected off the Akatsuki and Galvatron was just wasting energon.

"I have you now!" Galvatron shouted as he blasted at the scarlet hued Justice, far too fast to dodge.

Athrun brought up his left hip gun and arm, sacrificing the limb and weapon to save the core of his mobilesuit. "I'm hit."

Galvatron frowned. That should have killed the enemy robot outright, but he had managed to avoid a lethal strike. That left him open as a full alpha-strike from the METEOR equipped Freedom hammered home. "No! This can't be possible!" Explosions rent his armor all across his body

The Decepticon turned and fired at the Freedom, blasting an expended missile-pod from the METEOR pack. He saw pink and gold charging at him. With another spin, he turned and fired his arm cannon right at the Strike II, only for the attack to be perfectly blocked by the golden Akatsuki. Antimatter slammed back into the arm cannon with amazing force. His arm could have survived that, but the containment chamber in the cannon was breached. Galvatron was sent skidding across the surface of the Nemesis at the feet of a black Decepticon. More spikes of glowing energon plinked home across his body as he came to a halt in front of her.

"Black Arachnidia? What are you doing here?" Galvatron asked as he started to stand up.

"Killing you, of course, oh mighty leader." The assassin had a cruel smile up her lips, even as the energon poison started to take affect, joining her widow's spikes already in his back.

"I'll rip out your optics!" Galvatron bellowed.

"Face it Galvatron," the female Decepticon gloated gleefully. "Other then Cyclonus or Skyquake none of us care if you die." She then laughed as she faded into the blackness of space as Galvatron tested his limbs quickly, finding that his response time was deeply impaired.

Then a pink and gold blur cut Galvatron from head to crotch with a huge antiship sword. When Flay registered what she had done she felt...empty. Galvatron was gone but it didn't bring back her father. It nothing had changed. Victory wasn't sweet like she wanted to be. It was more like sour ashes.

She was driven from her musings by Nightscream and Windrazor's Seekers attacking her.

"No time to rest on our laurels," Athrun called out as he fired the laser CWISes in the chest and head of his unit.

The Seekers were confused at why someone was using such short range weapons on them.

"Oh slag us!" Smokesniper called out as he saw the Freedom.

"That thing has even more firepower than me!" the heavily armed Gigant Bomb said with fear filling his voice.

The METEOR pack and the Freedom's weapons glowed for a moment and then unloaded a hellish barrage on the Seekers. The Decepticons were shredded by the raw power of the pack.

Cagalli looked at the floating remains of the Decepticons and hoped that sort of firepower wouldn't ever be used against Orb, or by humans against humans. And yet she had this feeling that she might be hoping against hope on that.

Not while there were those that didn't consider war a horrifying prospect and one to be considered the absolute last resort with any sort of power roaming free.

Cagalli then wondered how many burned out husks of planets were across the galaxy due to such power being unleashed without control. And something she hoped never to find out the number of given the Autobots talked of their war and that of the Sontarans and their enemies the Rutan Host sounded to be horrifically destructive.

Cagalli pulled herself out of her thoughts and back into the battle at hand. They had a war to win, and with the head of the serpent cut off they might just have a chance. The only question was if the Decepticons would pull together or self destruct in power grabs.

* * *

"What do you mean Galvatron is dead?" Windrazor shouted from the center of his bridge.

"The humans sent four of their Guardians and won!" his scanner operator Blitzwing called out in shock and surprise. "And they are still in the fight!"

"What sort of monsters are they? I thought they were just little bags of squishy water?" Weirdwolf gasped from navigation.

"Shut up, you idiots." Windrazor was thinking furiously. "Open all channels! I, Windrazor of the Seekers declare myself Emperor of the Decepticons! Continue the attack and destroy the killers of Galvatron, long may he rest!"

His Catastrophe-class light cruiser suddenly jerked and shook as three ships next to him started to open fire.

"What?"

The appearance of General Strika on his screen answered that question quite handily. "Windrazor, declare your support for me or I will kill you like the bug you are."

"Wrong," they heard Nightscream call out. And his voice then became more serpentine. "I, Air Commander Starscream of the Decepticon Seeker Corps shall be your new leader!"

"The traitor? All Decepticons, rally with me! We shall destroy Starscream, the Autobots and the humans in one fell attacks! Let none resist us!" Strika ordered.

"Slag off Strika. I, Deathsaurus deserve to be leader of the Decepticons!" a massive blue, grey and gold Decepticon proclaimed grandly. "I am a true Emperor of Destruction!"

"No, I should be leader!" Scourge demanded.

"I shall take command!" Scorponok bellowed.

"Stop this madness at once!" Onslaught growled as he was losing his cool. "We have slagging bigger problems then this!"

"SHUT UP!" all the other would be Decepticon leaders yelled.

Onslaught then ignored the power grabbing idiots and put out a call to the second in commands and vital underlings. This was frankly completely and utterly slagging embarrassing. They were in the middle of a war!

* * *

"Prime, it's happening," Ironhide called out. "They are almost too busy squabbling for leadership to fight us."

"Let's not celebrate yet," Optimus Prime stated as he narrowed his optics in a thought. "When one of them finally solidifies their position, they will go for Galvatron's slayers first."

The deep red Autobot nodded in reply. "Archangel, you need to destroy those jammers as quickly as possible."

All over the scattered battlezones, Decepticon ships that were not in the middle of actually fighting the Earth and Autobot Forces stood out like sore thumbs now. Unfortunately all of them were out of the firing range of the Genesis guns.

The Archangel surged toward the closest of them, missiles and lasers assaulting the blocky and heavily armored Pale Fire.

On the bridge of the ship, Overlord was knocked out of his massive chair with a loud thud.

"Destroy that Unicron Spawning ship!" the titanic blue Decepticon ordered as he got to his feet.

The Pale Fire unleashed emerald bolts of energy at the Archangel, with the Lightwave barrier emitters in the ship stopping much of them cold.

"By Adaptus," Snapdragon gasped at weapon control. "What did the Autobots do to that thing?! I thought only Trailbreaker could do that!"

"We'll find out after we take it apart," Overlord commanded. "Launch the Seekers to board it!"

The bridge then shook again as a second ship joined in. One that filled the Pale Fire's crew with dread. The upgraded and even more lethal than ever Skyfire was attacking.

Grimlock was coming for them.

On the Archangel the crew was relieved to have back-up. In a fight they could rely on the Dinobots to take the battle to the enemy and show no mercy.

"Let them have it," Grimlock growled out from his throne-like captain's chair.

"On it," Slag and Snarl called out as they unleashed pure and utter hell on the Pale Fire anew.

The Decepticon ship shook as the blasts heated up the hull of the ships, and a shower of sparks came from damaged electrical systems.

"Blasted circuit breakers should have kicked in," Overlord groused as sparks rained down on him. "Hit the Skyfire with everything we have!"

Snapdragon managed to get off the floor and slammed his fist on the panel.

Missiles, and energy blasts spewed forth from the injured ship at the Skyfire. The upgraded cruiser was like its crew and took the barrage in stride and seemed to only be annoyed by it doing minor damage and ruining the paint job.

A massive nullray blast then struck the Pale Fire. In Engineering the Space Bridge Jammer's electronics literally burned out.

"I am going to handle this personally," Overlord bellowed. "Killmaster, you are in command until I get back. And for your sake the Jammer better be working by then."

Things were not much less tense on the Archangel.

"That one is yours Archangel," Grimlock stated in his usual gruff tone as he called the Earth ship. "I'm sure it is weak enough for you now."

"Thank you Grimlock," Captain Ramius said with tidal waves of sarcasm. Something about the utterly arrogant Autobot was getting on her nerves. The Dinobot leader didn't seem to care at all.

"Just get the job done," Grimlock added as a parting shot.

"I hope they assign him far from the solar system after this," Ramius muttered to herself. No one disagreed with that statement. If anything everyone agreed with her as Grimlock wasn't making any friends.

The Archangel then shook violently as Overlord unloaded on the ship with his warriors following him into combat. The Warrior Elite wished he had some cybernought battle mechs to show these flesh creatures how giant weapons of destruction were done. That thought amused Overlord.

That feeling was ripped from him as a HEAT round hit him right in the chest. He was sent off course and collided with Slugslinger and Misfire. Overlord growled as what was hurt most was his pride. One didn't become a Warrior Elite by being easy to damage. Another round hit him.

"Bring me the head of whoever is doing that!" Overlord commanded as he blew a third bazooka shell up.

In a GINN II Grip-Lock felt a lot less safe even with his bazooka. "What does it take to hurt that bot?"

"A lot more than we got," Jolt remarked in a CGUE II before opening fire on the Seekers with a heavy ion cannon. Thankfully this group hadn't taken Skygrasper alt forms so they weren't as heavily armed with Launch Striker Packs. Though he worried that would become the standard alt mode of the Seeker Corps after this fight.

"But what about the Archangel?" Grip-Lock mused as he hit a kind of crazy looking blue Seeker. Unlike Overlord he was sent flying off and didn't look he was going to just easily shake it off.

"They should be able to handle him...I hope," Skysickle said as he fired the spare MA-M21 Lupus beam rifle of the GuAIZ Experimental Arms into the swarm of foes.

"This isn't really encouraging," Tolle injected sharply.

"Sorry we can't be cheery!" Grip-Lock snapped at him.

And that was when a minor miracle came as a Calamity unit flew into the fight. In one of the Calamity Gundams, Rondo Gina Sahaku had a savage smirk on her face as she blasted the biggest Decepticon of the bunch with her units energy cannons.

And was shocked to see had merely wounded him instead turning him into space dust. And he looked ready to rip her Gundam apart with his bare hands! If she looked closely she would see the damage she had done would have off-lined a normal Transformer.

"Everyone target that Decepticon!" Mina barked out as she unloaded on Overlord again.

In his Strike Dagger Jolt looked at the four Gundams with undisguised envy and jealousy. Why weren't they asked to pilot any of those four units? All they got was the Green Astray and run of the mill mass produced mobile suits for this battle. Even a Hyperion would have been a lot better than this.

The Minicon shook himself from his thoughts just before what looked like a dark blue, and grey version of Wheeljack in some kind of weird exo armor took a shot at him. Jolt responded by kicking Slicer and his armor with his foot. The Con was sent flying right into the Pale Fire.

"Not sure courage, hope for the future and teamwork will be enough for this slagging mess," Skysickle muttered as he tried to help a Sword Calamity against Overlord.

The massive Decepticon was annoyed as he held back the Gundam's main weapon with ease. He tossed her through space. Then he was struck by a black light beam right in one of the wounds he'd gotten from the Calamity Gundam.

"Like this fleshies needed Autobot help to be even more annoying," Overlord growled. "Kill them all!"

"What does he think we're doing?" Rage growled as he fired on Tolle's Strike Dagger. None of the Stormtroopers gave their leader back talk. They remembered how the obsidian colored Decepticon had ripped the arm off Skullcruncher over some local movie and joking how the Stormtroopers in that had terrible aim. And then nearly beat him to death with it.

When a HEAT round blew Rage's legs off and sent him flying backwards through space, none of the Stormtroopers minded. They did manage to keep their enjoyment of that to themselves.

"Looks like they aren't defective," Grip-Lock mused.

"I could have told you that," Jolt remarked as he punched an obsidian Decepticon.

"A bit of help here?" Mina yelled as she was fighting Overlord. The Decepticon was battered but unbroken. The chest cannon of the unit erupted a devastating burst of energy and Overlord flew through the flight path with his torso and arm turning white hot. His hand came out of the barrage and tried to crush the still firing weapon, but the phase shift was making that difficult.

"Now that's what I call diecast construction," Skysickle gasped. Overlord's arm should be a puddle of metal by now!

"Its a lost art," Jolt commented sounding slightly bemused.

Grip-Lock was too busy helping the Calamities, regular and sword, to comment. He stayed out of sword fighting range from the Warrior Elite. Something he wasn't sure Roadhandler would avoid doing as he loved using a sword with a mobile suit.

In her mobile suit Mina let Overlord have it with all of her weapons at maximum power. The other Calamity Gundam did the same and it barely managed to get him to keep him from crushing her chest cannon.

A blacklight beam hit Overlord right in the optic and shattered it. Overlord ripped a piece of his molten arm off and shoved it over the exposed to space inner workings of that optic. He didn't even wince as the armor fused into place.

"What...what does it take to stop this monster?" Mina asked sounded like she'd been shocked back into sanity.

"A lot more than what we got," Grip-Lock whispered.

"Enough doubts," Jolt called out. "Overlord's beatable. Let's remember that."

Overlord appeared to be slowing down as the damage he was taking kept on increasing. Yet his expression was only growing and more enraged. Tolle and his Strike Dagger were in front of him and ripped off the left arm of the Dagger. The young pilot swerved to the left and barely avoided having his mobile's head caved in with the missing arm.

"Scrap!" Skysickle yelled as he gave Tolle cover fire to get away.

"Kill these insects!" Overlord commanded. "Destroy these affronts to us all!"

Overlord's forces followed his order and unleashed hell on the mobile suits and the Archangel. Laser fire and more exotic weapon payloads slammed into the Lightwave barrier.

The Archangel was shaking from the shockwaves of the surface of the ship heating up due to the weapons fire.

"Forward!" Overlord yelled. "Rip that ship apart!"

With that call the Decepticons rushed at the Archangel. Laser fire struck the shields to see how much of a beating they could take. Suddenly the Lightwave barrier went down.

On the bridge, Natarle Badgiruel watched as the lead Decepticon was targeted with the Valiant.

"Fire," Captain Ramius commanded.

At that every weapon on the ship was unleashed on the Decepticon forces. Energy fire, bullets, and missiles struck the hard and unexpectedly. And out of the destruction came a wounded and enraged beyond rational thought Overlord.

"What does it take to kill that thing?" Mina Sahaku gasped. "And why isn't he leading the Decepticons?"

"He honestly doesn't give a slag about politics. He just doesn't want to be leader," Grip-Lock informed her. "Though given everyone is scared of him and that includes his superiors."

The heavily wounded Overlord flew at the Archangel with no concern other than to drive straight through it and to keep doing that until the ship was scrap metal.

The Gottfied and Lohengrin cannons unloaded on Overlord. Both Calamity Gundams added to the barrage and all hoped that it'd be enough to stop the seemingly unstoppable Decepticon juggernaut.

What they saw was ruined Overlord with his armor gone and most of his unarmored internals melted off. They could see the inner workings of his one exposed eye that stared at them with malice. Instantly the Calamity Gundams fired again as their weapons had a shorter time to wait before firing again. The Minicons and Tole joined along with the Sword Calamities to give the Archangel's guns time to cool down before battering Overlord again.

Said Decepticon was in such pure and utter pain and rage that he barely even noticed their attacks. He had only one mission...to destroy that supposed Supreme! Nothing else mattered at this point to him.

Missiles from the Archangel struck Overlord along with the mobile suits fire power. The maddened Warrior Elite kept on coming. Nothing was stopping him. Nothing was holding him back.

Yet even he was aware he was in trouble when he was right in front of one of the Gottfried cannons when it had cooled enough to fire again. The legged ship moved and unleashed the other energy cannons and the Valiant on him once more.

With that Overlord was silent and unmoving. Several more barrages were unleashed on the Decepticon starship captain to make sure he was dead. No one felt like taking any chances with him being in stasis lock and recoverable by the Decepticons at a later date.

A barrage of nuclear slammers ripped into the Pale Fire. The armor did nothing to stop them and once they were deep inside the Decepticon battleship they exploded. Blinding flashes of light came out of the openings they made before the entire ship detonated.

"Primus I hope the other ships have slagging less powerful skippers," Skysickle muttered.

On the Skyfire Grimlock laughed in bemusement at what he'd seen.

"These humans aren't that bad," he admitted. "There's been worse allies to work with."

The other Dinobots stared at their leader in shock.

"You need Skar to check you out?" Sludge asked from damage control.

"I'm fine," Grimlock growled. "Now let's go kill some Cons!"

With roar of approval the Dinobots threw themselves into that task.


End file.
